COVID-19

Lapu-Lapu City puts up checkpoints as beach resorts reach 50% capacity

John Sitchon

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Lapu-Lapu City puts up checkpoints as beach resorts reach 50% capacity

BEACH CROWD. Watching the capacity of resorts is the new normal in local tourism in Lapu-Lapu City.

Photo courtesy of CDRRMO OIC Nagiel Bañacia

‘We have contact tracers that go around every day, inspecting the logbook of the business establishments,’ says Nagiel Bañacia, head of Lapu-Lapu City’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office

A number of families were denied entry into several beach reports in Lapu-Lapu City on Mactan Island after establishments nearly went beyond the allowed 50% capacity over the weekend, October 24 and 25. 

“When the resorts were becoming full, we denied entry. We put up checkpoints near the entrances to make sure they would be limited,” Nagiel Bañacia, head of Lapu-Lapu City’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO), said in a mix of Cebuano and English. 

Under the guidelines of the national inter-agency task force against COVID-19, all business establishments in areas under modified general community quarantine or MGCQ are allowed to operate at 50% capacity, provided they ensure health protocols are implemented.

“There must be an established system in the resorts to ensure the health protocols are followed, especially social distancing. We have contact tracers that go around every day, inspecting the logbook of the business establishments,” Bañacia said 

in a phone interview with Rappler. 

“Some of those who were denied entry waited for about an hour or two. Most of them were families from Cebu and Mandaue [cities],” he added.

Normally, a tourist permit would be required to enter the establishments. However, non-residents of Lapu-Lapu City are only required to present a “proof of booking” at resorts they are entering.

The head of the city’s CDRRMO also said families who waited for hours chose to go to different beaches, which helped in some way to distribute people evenly in Lapu-Lapu City’s resort establishments. 

Around the last week of September, Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard Chan issued an executive order that required mandatory testing for all pump boat operators and tricycle drivers that would be interacting with tourists. (READ: Lapu-Lapu City to test boat operators, tricycle drivers for COVID-19)

“We make an apology for those beachgoers who are denied entry to some public and private beach resorts for the area are already full in capacity,” said Bañacia in his social media post. – Rappler.com

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