Covid-free Sagada strictly implements one road entry

A personnel from the Bureau of Fire (BOF) decontaminates an incoming vehicle at the quarantine control point at sitio Pegew along the Sagada -Dantay Road before proceeding to town

By Gina Dizon   

SAGADA, MOUNTAIN PROVINCE-  To prevent the spread of the dreaded corona virus, the Dantay-Sagada national road is the only entry point to incoming vehicles inside Covid-free Sagada during this enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) period for Luzon and national state of public health emergency.  

This, with municipal advisories and executive orders in consultations with barangay officials, government agencies and the incident command system of the municipality in addressing the threat of Covid-19 in accordance to guidelines of the national Interagency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (MEID).

Among IATF guidelines is the unrestricted movement of cargoes referring to food and non-food within to and from the entire Luzon along national and provincial roads.  

Food delivery drivers are among those allowed unhampered entry among authorized persons outside residence (APOR) including those doing basic services on medical, funeral, security, and emergency responders; employees doing daily essentials on money transfer, pharmacies; officials and employees on telecommunications and energy companies; government skeletal force, those doing survey work  related to Covid-19, government officials and  support staff,  media personalities, agribusiness and agricultural workers,  and distressed overseas foreign workers (OFWs).
With the Joint Task Force Covid Shield, the enforcement arm of the IATF-MEID, instructions on food delivery trucks to run unhampered  along provincial and national roads is taken note of  and considering particularities of the town.
Sagada is reached via four entries namely the provincial roads of Sabangan-Sagada via Madepdeppas-Taccong road, Balili-Suyo road separating from the Bontoc-Baguio national road. Sagada-Besao Road and the Dantay-Sagada national tourism road forking from the Bontoc-Baguio national road. These, aside from inter-provincial and inter-municipal route treks. 

In a recent meeting this April 13 among barangay and municipal officials with the LGU and concerned government agency officers with the Philippine National Police (PNP) agreed that only the entry at sitio Pegew shall be the only road entry to all incoming vehicles and persons entering Sagada.

Municipal Mayor James Pooten Jr said control measures include the regulation of incoming vehicles to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Sagada remains to be Covid-free as the LGU here maintains strict measures in regulating entries of vehicles especially from those coming from Covid-infected areas.

Drivers and passengers from Covid-infected areas imposes a 14-day quarantine period at sitio Pegew before they are allowed entry in the municipality.

Where the food-truck driver is not from Sagada, he is instructed to wear personal protective equipment while delivering the cargo and leave Sagada before 5 pm on the same day in accordance to a municipal advisory.   

Required documents are asked from the food-truck driver including a food pass issued by the Department of Agriculture and a shipping permit for animals where such is the case before allowed entry in town.

Documents presented by incoming food cargo drivers and their truck helpers are a municipal pass/permit, health declaration from their respective rural health units, and food pass for food delivery trucks.

APOR entering Sagada are required to present their identification cards.  

As a protocol in preventing the spread of Covid-19, incoming vehicles are decontaminated  with chlorinated solution by personnel from the Bureau of Fire (BOF) before allowed entry. 

Incoming passengers are required to wash their hands before proceeding to register their names at the registration table manned by staff from the LGU.

Earlier, it was learned that a meeting with Mountain Province PNP Director Col. Homer Penecilla was amenable to the one-entry point to Sagada at sitio Pegew along the Dantay-Sagada road. 

In suppletory guidelines issued by the department of Interior and local government (DILG), all local chief executives are instructed to strengthen preventive measures and ensure that monitoring systems are in place including the establishment of checkpoints in their respective jurisdictions.

DILG officer Raymund Basco said that the one entry point policy of  Sagada LGU takes consideration on the lack of resources to man the four entries including decontamination measures and quarantine sites.

Registration of incoming and outgoing passengers and drivers at the Pegew hub are alternately manned by staff from the tourism/treasury office of the municipality.

Frontliners at the registration table at Pegew note some 130 outgoing passengers and drivers who regularly ply the road mostly government personnel who go to the capital town of Bontoc aside from food delivery trucks and a few emergency cases.

Barangay hubs are alternately manned by barangay officials.
The municipality maintains an operation center and the disaster risk reduction and management office run by LGU staff and 12 volunteers.
Meantime, checkpoints here at sitio Pegew at eastern Sagada and Bangaan barangay at northern Sagada are manned by 32 PNP personnel along with 25 Army elements from the 54rth Infantry Battalion.

PNP directives from Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, PNP Deputy Chief for Operations and commander of the Joint Task Force COVID Shield forwarded that all QCPs established by city, municipal and barangay LGUs are supervised by local PNP units.

In said meeting with the barangay officials and PNP here, it was noted that PNP shall do the supervision of barangay hubs and QCPs while barangay and the municipal LGU shall continue to manage said hubs.
Sagada Chief of Police Basilio Hopdayan in said meeting urged barangay officials to use their police powers in implementing  regulations,  

Sagada’s 19 barangays has individual and clustered hubs at northern, eastern and central Sagada.

Sagada PNP Information officer Raffy Pinayakan advised the barangay officers to call on the PNP should there be some problems in manning checkpoints.

Bamboo-made barricades at Payag-ew and Taccong checkpoints were replaced with a rope bar  to regulate entries  particularly at northern and southern Sagada.

The Taccong and Payag-ew roads remain to prevent entry to all incoming vehicles as instructed by a municipal advisory here.

Suyo-Payag-ew Barangay Chairman Jose Tabcao said they instruct motorists who come from anywhere to use the Dantay-Sagada road as their entry point.

In an interview, Tabcao recalled an incident where a food delivery truck from Bulacan tried to use the Balili-Suyo road but was prevented by barangay officials who instructed the driver to proceed to sitio Pegew.

In said meeting with barangay officials, Pooten reminded barangay  officials to inform kagawads and health workers to strictly monitor persons under monitoring (PUM) now referred to as  “possible cases” to stay home and stop from roaming around.

There are only seven ‘possible’ cases in town still to complete their 14-day home quarantine and seven persons under investigation (PUIs) who completed their 14- day quarantine and all tested negative. 

Municipal physician Dr Geovy Rose Aborque said “that does not mean we should be complacent. It means we should be more careful much as there has been no mass testing done.”