Passenger bus operator Vallacar Transit, Inc. (VTI) is requesting the provincial government of Negros Oriental to allow the resumption of travel between here and Cebu City.

This came several months after the bus trips rolled to a stop last year following the imposition of the community quarantine to stem the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Assistant Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Liland Estacion, health committee chair of the province’s Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), in a press briefing Tuesday said she received a letter from VTI regarding the appeal.

However, she wrote back to the company that operates the Ceres buses to write Gov. Roel Degamo instead so that this could be tackled during a meeting with the provincial IATF later this week.

Capitol Public Information Officer Bimbo Miraflor, meanwhile, said that “whatever is best for the riding public will be considered”.

“The resumption of travels to Cebu will depend on the rise of infection in both areas and the places along the route,” he said.

For his part, provincial IATF-EID executive director Adrian Sedillo said the body, chaired by Degamo, will be meeting on Friday with the local chief executives regarding this, as well as the easing of borders from other provinces, such as Negros Occidental.

He said that under the latest guidelines from the national IATF on intra-zonal and inter-zonal movements, border control is now “technically lifted” in areas that have been placed under general community quarantine (GCQ) and modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).

Negros Oriental remains under MGCQ.

The meeting is expected to deliberate on how to control the ingress and egress of people in the province with the easing up/lifting of restrictions, to include certain documentary requirements for the general public, Sedillo said. (PNA)