Capitol moves worker’s pass requirement implementation to Aug. 12

Residents of Cebu province who are working in Cebu City will already need a work travel pass to be applied through the mobile application, WeTrace.

(Updated 9 p.m./ August 9) CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Capitol has moved to Wednesday, August 12, the implementation of the requirement for residents of Cebu province, who work in Cebu City, to have a Work Travel Pass through the mobile application, WeTrace, in order for them to reenter the province when they go home from work.

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia’s Executive Order No. 20-C originally set the implementation of the policy on Monday, August 10, 2020.

But on Sunday afternoon, August 9, the Capitol-run Sugbo News announced that the “strict implementation” of the policy had been moved two days later to give more time for the workers to process their applications.

Under Executive Order No. 20-C, which requires for the WTP, the application and the granting of the pass by the workers’ local government unit of residence, are all through the mobile application.

“Persons working in permitted establishments located within the City of Cebu but who are residing in MGCQ and other GCQ areas and vice versa shall be allowed entry into the Province provided that they can present a WORK TRAVEL PASS (WTP) thru their mobile devices via WeTrace App,” the EO read.

Read: Workers from GCQ areas in province must register at WeTrace before getting travel pass

Among those required in the application for a WTP are a medical certificate, company identification cards, updated Certificate of Employment from the employer stating that the applicant is still connected with the company, and the applicant’s I.D. photo.

The WTP that will be issued by the LGU, still through WeTrace, will contain the specific point of origin or the home address of the worker and his destination or the address of his workplace. Under the conditions set in the executive order, the WTP may be revoked if its holder travels outside the points identified in his pass.

“The WeTrace App shall be granted access to the location of workers thru their mobile phones at all times. The Bluetooth of the mobile phone shall always be activated,” the EO read.

Aside from using the location services feature of the mobile phone to identify and log the whereabouts of the phone’s holder, the app may also use the Bluetooth feature of the device in order to continue its tracing and logging of the locations even when the phone is on offline mode or out of internet service.

“You can use this feature even in offline mode. It will automatically sync when you reconnect to the internet,” the WeTrace-Bluetooth description said.

Read: WeTrace to open registration by Aug. 8

Last April, Garcia also issued Executive Order No. 5 – P which requires  “all persons within the Province of Cebu”  to download the WeTrace App in order to “provide local government officials with an accurate system of tracing and monitoring of persons that are manifesting symptoms of the coronavirus disease 2019.”/dbs