Opening a Pandora’s box
When Wuhan City in China was ravaged by the novel coronavirus, we clamored for the government to close our borders especially to Chinese travelers. Even at present, there are lingering thoughts that the Philippines could have managed our COVID-19 crisis better had we shut down our borders early. But we can no longer turn the hands of time to craft what would have been a better approach in dealing with the pandemic. We are already stuck in a situation where cases continue to rise as quarantine restrictions are gradually eased to resuscitate an economy in distress.
As it stands now, the tourism industry needs more government intervention than other industries to do a hard reset under the new normal. Close to 2 million workers have been affected by the closures of local tourism businesses as the country is losing the opportunity to gain from foreign tourism arrivals that reached to 8.26 million in 2019.
To revive the tourism industry, neighboring countries with low or zero COVID cases are planning to open “travel bubbles.” The Department of Tourism throughSecretary Bernadette Puyat said that the department is eyeing to allow tourists from countries with low to zero coronavirus cases to visit the Philippines.This proposed policy called “travel bubbles,” Puyat said, could allow tourists to fly directly to tourist hotspots in the country with international airports. (rappler.com) Since Bohol is one of the top tourism destinations in the country with an international airport, a travel bubble is very much feasible. This is precisely the purpose of Puyat’s visit here in our province.
The promise of reviving Bohol’s tourism industry through “travel bubbles” should be taken with a grain of salt. When there was no confirmed COVID case in the province yet, it was our clarion call to the government to stop the arrival of tourists from hot zone countries since it poses a clear and present danger of bringing the virus to our own soil. For months, Bohol successfully maintained the status of being COVID free, but this record has been shattered as local transmissions were confirmed with just an interval of one day or two.
Along with the rising cases is the pressure from the national government to accept repatriated OFWs and locally stranded individuals. While it is hoped that eventually we will come to deal with the disease with scientific approaches, our local governments in the province still need to develop their capacities and build confidence in handling local transmissions. We have not yet successfully hurdled the baptism of fire in this pandemic. More than the availability of COVID testing and isolation facilities in the province, Boholanos’ strict adherence to basic health protocols is paramount. Adherence to protocols must be a result of voluntary compliance, not the kind of compliance exacted by the threat of imprisonment hovering like the sword of Damocles.
Now, another challenge is in the offing as the province is being primed for the reopening of the tourism industry travel bubbles. If not managed well, the opening of Bohol’s tourism industry mayresult to more COVID cases that can lead to an overburdened healthcare system in the province. To prevent this from happening, one possible alternative is to enforce discipline to the locals with an iron hand while relaxing the protocols to foreign tourists visiting the province in a bid to foster a welcoming environment to our visitors. This will create a scenario where many Boholanos become prisoners in their own land for quarantine violations just to create an impression to our foreign visitors of a safe travel and stay in the province. A double standard approach in reopening our tourism industry is totally unacceptable.
While travel bubbles appear to be a silver lining for the tourism industry,it is like a Pandora’s box which draws our attention due to its attractive form, but it can also be a source of great and unexpected troubles. – By Atty. Greg Borja Austral, CPA