FOR NOW, tourists going to Boracay Island will still have to get an RT-PCR test, at least 72 hours prior to their departure from Metro Manila or their home provinces.
This was the decision of the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force (BIATF) which met on the island on Wednesday afternoon at Crimson Resort. Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat announced during an online press briefing that the cost of the RT-PCR tests will be subsidized by the Tourism Promotions Board, the marketing arm of the Department of Tourism (DOT).
TPB Chief Operating Officer Anthonette C. Velasco-Allones told the BusinessMirror in a separate Viber message, “We’re still discussing the details [of the subsidy] with UP-PGH (Philippine General Hospital). We can perhaps subsidize 50 percent of the RT-PCR cost.” Allones could not yet reveal how much TPB will be allocating for said subsidy.
Boracay stakeholders claim that the prohibitive cost of the RT-PCR test is discouraging tourists to vacation on the island. The RT-PCR test costs anywhere from P4,000 to P6,500 depending on the medical facility and speed by which the test results are released.
Romulo Puyat pointed out, PGH is charging only P1,800 per person for the RT-PCR, and even without the subsidy, “is already very low.” Allones said though, only a few well-off tourists can afford the RT-PCR test at PGH, “but a traveling family would benefit from [the subsidized cost].”
But the DOT chief did not preclude the possibility of the BIATF allowing antigen testing for Boracay tourists eventually. She said, this was why Mayor Benjamin Magalong, government’s appointed contract-tracing czar joined the meeting of the BIATF, chaired by Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu and co-chaired by Interior Secretary Eduardo M. Año, and Romulo Puyat.
“They will transition to use of the antigen test once contact-tracing and safety protocols are in place, care of Mayor Magalong,” said Romulo Puyat. “He will also help Boracay set up an operation center, which will have data analytics, geo-spatial analysis, link analysis, and clinical analytics,” she stressed.
During the press conference, the tourism secretary praised Magalong for his own innovative ways in dealing and handling Covid-19 outbreaks in his city. “Baguio City is a model for other provinces to follow,” she said, citing that any Covid case in Baguio now “was not due tourism.”
Arrivals on Boracay from January to November was 319,611, compared to 1.88 million in the same period in 2019, according to data from the municipality of Malay. From June 8 to November 25, 2020, the DOT has issued certificates of authority to operate to 253 hotels and resorts, covering 5,731 rooms.
Image credits: AP