CORTES, Bohol, Oct. 30 (PIA) -- Fully-vaccinated travelers bound for Bohol now only need to show their vaccination card, a government-issued ID card, and their S-pass application.
This after Gov. Arthur Yap has issued Executive Order No. 52-B series of 2021, which amended preceding orders contained in Executive Orders No. 52 and 52-A reinstituting the use of vaccination cards and streamlining travel requirements for vaccinated individuals entering Bohol.
Earlier, Executive Order No. 52 lifted the negative RT-PCR Test Result requirement for inbound fully vaccinated individuals, but are required to show their vaccination certificate instead.
These certificates generated from the government website vaxcert.doh.gov.ph and duly authenticated and validated by the Department of Health (DOH) Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) have been deemed as a solution to the proliferation of fake travel documents that could endanger the health and security of the destination local government units (LGUs).
E.O. No. 52 then mandates that aside from the authenticated vaccination certificate, the traveler must get an approved S-Pass Travel Pass from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) website.
Those requirements, however, proved impossible to obtain for fully vaccinated individuals whose LGUs have yet to encode their vaccination data and upload it to the Department of Information and Communication Technology and DOH website.
Another travel requirement, the S-pass, is also dependent on the availability of the LGU focal person who approves the application and sends it to the Bohol Inter Agency Task Force for endorsement to the border security authorities.
With the cumbersome process, the governor issued Executive Order No. 52-A, Series of 2021 which temporarily allowed until Nov. 30 the use of vaccination cards, along with government-issued ID card, and S-Pass Travel Pass, in lieu of the vaccination certificates from vaxcert.doh.gov.ph which could not be generated at the moment.
The governor pointed out in his order the corollary need to provide safeguards against the proliferation of fake vaccination cards allowing unvaccinated individuals to travel without presenting negative RT-PCR Test Results.
Moreover, in the expected influx of travelers for the Undas and the approaching Christmas season, the governor noted that LGU focal persons are currently swamped with requests for the S-pass travel approval.
The governor ordered the acceptance of travelers even with pending S-pass requests, after consulting with mayors.
“While there is still a need to obtain S-Pass Travel Pass for recording and monitoring purposes, it is no longer the fault of the travelers if their requests remain pending and they should be allowed to travel upon complying with the Vaccination Card and Government-issued ID requirements,” the said executive order reads.
The governor has also lifted the prior endorsement from the LGUs to the BIATF as a travel requirement which has resulted to several Bohol-bound passengers stranded at the port.
It was later found out that the Bohol Inter-Agency Task Force was enforcing this list for Philippine Coast Guard and Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines which showed the names of approved travelers.
With the new E.O. No. 52-B effective Oct. 30, fully vaccinated inbound travelers, upon presenting printed copies of either approved or pending approval S-Pass applications, vaccination card, and government-issued IDs, can now be allowed to purchase airline or ship tickets and board and travel to the Province of Bohol. (RAHC/PIA7 Bohol)
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