SUBIC BAY FREEPORT – The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) is now enforcing stricter safety protocols to ensure the health and safety of visitors to the Subic Bay Freeport amid the recent surge in Covid-19 infections.

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said hotels and accommodation facilities here will now require guests to present negative results for Covid-19 antigen tests taken in the past 24 hours or RT-PCR tests released 48 hours prior to check-in.
The new requirement was made effective Monday, January 24, following Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) guidelines placing the surrounding areas of Zambales, Olongapo City, and Bataan under Alert Level 3 on January 6, Eisma said.

“While interzonal travel is allowed under Alert Level 3, we want to take the extra step in ensuring the health and safety of, not only our visitors in the Freeport, but also our local businesses, workers, and stakeholders,” Eisma said.

She added that the SBMA is also checking for vaccination cards among visitors entering the Freeport and required negative RT-PCR test results for the unvaccinated.

Previous Alert Level 3 guidelines from the IATF did not require antigen or RT-PCR tests for interzonal travel except when required by establishments or event organizers. “However, because of the recent surge in Covid-19 infections, there is a need for us to enforce stricter measures for the sake of both visitors and locals, and to keep Subic businesses going,” Eisma stressed.

Recently, Olongapo City, which provides most of the workers in the Subic Bay Freeport, was named as one of the cities with the highest rate of Covid-19 infections. The Subic Freeport, meanwhile, logged 78 active cases for SBFZ residents and 17 for Freeport transient workers and guests as of January 18.

“This is why we have to be more vigilant, and why we should not relax our guard,” Eisma explained.

Along with the hotel requirements, the SBMA also reminded Subic business locators and stakeholders to report possible cases of Covid-19 to the SBMA Public Health and Safety Department, pointing out that failure to do so shall be grounds for the cancellation of their certificates of registration.

Eisma said that under Republic Act 11332, or the “Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act,” persons and entities who will not report Covid-19 cases or respond to Covid-19 health events may be fined from P20,000 to P50,000.

Business establishments in the Freeport were also required to announce to the public if they have been temporarily closed because of any recently confirmed Covid-19 case in their premises, she added.

Eisma said that both the SBMA and neighboring local government units have been increasing their target vaccinations and booster rollout to keep Covid-19 cases low and not overwhelm the healthcare system. “As the SBMA and neighbor-LGUs have proven well in the past, we are stronger together in every common undertaking,” she said.

She added that while the SBMA is not an LGU, it has initiated a vaccine drive primarily for Freeport employees, health workers, and residents. “At the end of the day, we can only beat Covid-19 if we practice malasakit and help each other,” she said.

The Subic chief also reminded the general public that while restrictions are in place, the Subic Bay Freeport Zone is still very much open to everyone and will continue to be the premier business hub in this part of the country.

“As long as we follow the minimum health and safety standards like always wearing mask, keeping safe distance, frequent handwashing or disinfection, and, of course, getting vaccinated, we will get over this new surge as we have had before,” Eisma said.

“Eleven municipalities have so far each identified one quarantine site for the locality, while two others—the towns of Palauig and Sta. Cruz—have two sites each, so all the LGUs have been accounted for,” Ebdane said on Wednesday.

In response to the governor’s urgent call for preparedness, local government units (LGUs) in the 13 towns of Zambales are setting up local quarantine facilities and border disinfection units to strengthen local capacity to combat the spread of the new coronavirus disease (Covid-19). 

 “On top of these, the provincial government is maintaining two other quarantine sites—the President Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Hospital (PRRMH) here in Iba, and the Bahay Pag-asa in Botolan town,” he added.

PRMMH, under Ebdane’s Monday order, was designated for exclusive use of Covid-19 cases. As of Wednesday, April 1, all regular patients have been transferred to the two district hospitals in the province, San Marcelino District Hospital and Candelaria District Hospital. Others, according to the governor, opted to continue treatment at the Kainomayan Community Hospital in Botolan.

“It is important to segregate cases of Covid-19 to prevent possible spread through the sharing of the same facility,” the governor explained.

On Sunday, Ebdane gave all LGU units the order to implement more stringent measures, stressing that preparedness be at the core of the provincial action plan against Covid-19.

“It is very heartening how community leaders and officials eagerly complied,” he said, adding that he has been inspecting proposed quarantine sites since Tuesday.

Among the defense measures now being practiced in Zambales is the disinfection of vehicles going in or out of the province.

A mandatory quarantine is required for all outsiders who wants to enter the province. New arrivals will be held for 14 days at facilities in the border towns of Sta. Cruz and Subic, according to Ebdane. Exempted from this policy are travelers on vital missions like delivery of food and medical supplies, and others provided under the rules of the Enhanced Community Quarantine declared by President Rodrigo Duterte, he clarified.

Ebdane said that some local officials even took this a step further and established their own disinfection stations at the border of their own towns or barangay. 

Meanwhile, other LGUs have begun doing inventory of their current stock of supplies of food and medicine after the governor ordered record-keeping of necessities as part of emergency response.

A number of private doctors and other medical personnel in the locality have also answered Ebdane’s call for enlistment as health “reservist” in their towns. 

“In times like this, cooperation is the most important contribution anyone can make. It would be easier for us to contain, and consequently eradicate the virus if the community acted as one,” the governor said. 

Statistics released by the Zambales Provincial Health Office (PHO) showed that as of March 31, only 4,307 persons under monitoring (PUMs) have remained of the 12,859 that the province had recorded since day one of the Luzon-wide Enhanced Community Quarantine. 

“More than 8,000 had already been cleared, as they did not exhibit any symptom of Covid-19,” Ebdane said, adding that those cleared, however, remain at home under quarantine rules. 

The PHO also indicated that 118 of those 247 tagged as persons under investigation (PUIs) in the province have completed the 14-day observation period without any of the symptoms progressing to require testing. 

Of the remaining 122 PUIs, eight have already tested negative of the disease and six are on hospital care. Three were confirmed positives, and one of them, a 90-year old resident of Castillejos town, has died.

“The numbers here are small compared to other areas in the country, but this does not mean we can relax our vigilance,” Ebdane clarified. “Zambales, in fact, has just stepped-up response to the threat,” he added. ###