By Antonio L. Colina IV
DAVAO CITY – Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte has ordered the suspension of at least 21 domestic flights and four international flights flying out of the Davao International Airport effective immediately to contain the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte
(HNP / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Duterte issued the Executive Orders 12 and 13 following the announcement on the 14-day border closure of Davao Region’s five provinces, six cities, and 43 municipalities starting 12:01 a.m. on Thursday.
The border closure will be implement as the Davao Region COVID-19 Task Force is also set to enforce a 14-day suspension of land, sea, and air travels on Tuesday evening.
Since the Cathay Dragon's Davao-Hong Kong-Davao and XiamenAir's Davao-Quanzhou-Davao flights were already suspended last February, the remaining international flights at the Davao airport are Cebu Pacific’s Davao-Singapore-Davao, Garuda Indonesia’s Davao-Manado-Davao, Qatar Airways’ Davao-Qatar-Davao, and SilkAir’s Davao-Singapore-Davao.
Duterte said the order to suspend the domestic and international flights was in pursuance of the Presidential Proclamation 922 placing the country “in a state of public health emergency in relation to national security.”
The suspension was issued two days after the mayor temporarily canceled Clark-Davao-Clark flights after most of the stranded Manila-Davao-Manila flights attempted to fly over to Davao via Clark, following the Resolution 11 issued by the COVID-19 Inter-Agency Task Force “banning all flights in and out of Metro Manila to contain the spread of the disease.”
“There is a need to abide by the IATF Resolution 11 prohibiting unnecessary travel and to enforce more stringent measures to prevent the virus from affecting Dabawenyos,” Duterte said.
Created on Tuesday, the Davao Region COVID-19 Task Force is being led by Sara Duterte, who has been designated as chairperson of the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC) and Regional Development Council (RDC).
The task force, comprising various local chief executives and heads of other government agencies, has been formed to synergize the efforts of the region’s five provinces, six cities, and 43 municipalities to contain the COVID-19 infection, the statement read.
The suspension may be reduced to seven days depending upon the “review of Infectious Disease Specialist Consultant.”
It added residents could still leave the region any time prior to the regional lockdown but warned that they could no longer be granted entry once the borders are closed, at least for the next 14 days.