Rama: Implementing tourist ban is national government’s call
Vice Mayor Michael Rama says national government has the capability to implement a tourist ban and not the local government units. | Screengrabbed from Delta Letigio’s video
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City is not the right agency to ban tourists from countries affected by the 2019-novel coronavirus (2019-nCov) or Wuhan coronavirus, it should be the concern of the national government.
This was the statement of Vice Mayor Michael Rama after the coordination meeting between the City Council’s Task Force Coronavirus and the Department of Health (DOH).
Rama said that the local government units (LGUs) had no capability to implement a ban for tourists particularly those from China, where the virus had affected the most.
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However, the national government through agencies such as the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Quarantine can implement a ban of the entry of these tourists from the ports.
Recently, the Bureau of Immigration has suspended the issuance of Visa Upon Arrival (VUA) to Chinese nationals especially those travelling from Wuhan City, the source of the coronavirus.
“When you say banning, that is a national direction. In the local, we can only prevent entry, which is implemented only after a national directive,” said Rama.
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The vice mayor said that talks in the Senate and the Congress have been ongoing to implement a ban of travellers from the possible sources of the virus.
The LGUs can only wait for this national directive.
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The World Health Organization confirmed that 38 countries have positive cases of the Wuhan Coronavirus including many of the neighboring countries of the Philippines such as Japan, Singapore, and South Korea.
Rama said it might be difficult to ban all these 38 countries, but the national government might choose to ban travellers from China because it was where the virus began to spread and had spread the most.
Still, he said the LGUs could and would continue to encourage the national government to identify and implement the best precautionary measures against the Wuhan coronavirus./dbs
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