Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said Tuesday that the IATF approved the resumption of domestic flights in areas under GCQ or general community quarantine.
Tugade however, said in an interview with Unang Balita that the flight should have approval from concerned local government units (LGUs).
“Kagabi po ‘yung Inter-Agency Task Force, ‘yung ating chief implementer, si Secretary [Carlito] Galvez, nag-issue na ng kasulatan at kautusan na kung saan ang sinasabi po niya allowed na ang domestic commercial aviation,” Tugade said.
(Secretary [Carlito] Galvez, our chief implementer of Inter-Agency Task Force, issued an order that is allowing domestic, commercial aviation.)
“Ang kailangan ho dito aprubado lang ng [local] government,” he added.
(The approval of the local government is needed.)
According to DOTr Assistant Secretary for Planning and Project Development Giovanni Lopez, some LGUs are refusing to accept domestic flights. It was the same reason why thousands of repatriated overseas Filipino workers got stranded in Metro Manila.
As a result, Lopez said the DOTr and National Task Force against COVID-19 decided to allow domestic flights only in areas with the approval of local governments in the meantime.
“Nagkaroon lang po ng kaunting isyu pagdating sa ating mga lokal na pamahaalaan. May agam-agam sila na tumanggap ng domestic flights,” Lopez said in an interview onUnang Balita.
(We had a small issue when it comes to our local government units. They had doubts about accepting domestic flights.)
Also read: DOH reveals 6,800 COVID-19 tests for validation
Domestic flights in GCQ areas
“Nagpulong po ang DOTr at ang NTF. Napagdesisyunan po na uunahin na lang natin ang mga lokal na pamahalaan na gusto at handang tumanggap ng domestic flight,” he added.
(The DOTr and the NTF met. They decided that we will prioritize those local government units that wanted and ready to accept domestic flights.)
Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific and Air Asia said earlier announced they would gradually resume operations this month after the government transitioned in Metro Manila and several parts of the country to GCQ from modified ECQ.
During the GCQ, some modes of public transportation resumed operations but on a limited capacity only.
As of June 1, the number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines already reached 18, 638 with 960 deaths, and 3,979 recoveries.