TAGBILARAN CITY – Bohol Governor Arthur Yap warned against the entry of illegal locally stranded individuals (LSIs), who could try to return to this province without prior coordination with their mayors or local government units (LGUs).

This was stressed by Yap as he underscored that the provincial government was strictly managing and regulating the arrival of LSIs to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the province.

Yap called it a policy of management arrival as his response to the LSI program established by the national inter-agency task force (IATF).  He said the entry of LSIs will continue, but as regulated and based on available LGU quarantine facilities.

“It is important that LSIs must coordinate with their mayors or LGUs through the designated focal persons since they directly know the capacity of their quarantine facilities and available rooms in a given time.  As of June 30, Bohol exceeded by 560 percent its target number of returned LSIs for the month,” Yap said.

In an emergency management meeting in May, Yap said the target was to receive an initial 1,000 LSIs by the whole month.

But according to Technical Working Group Spokesperson Dr. Cesar Tomas Lopez, there were already 6,654 LSIs who have returned to their respective towns as of June 30.

Yap noted that most mayors opposed the option of home quarantine for LSIs, including the current 21 active COVID-19 cases in Bohol.  The newest confirmed positive cases as of June 4 were two LSIs from Loboc town who were already isolated at the LGU facility.

Those LSIs will still be transferred to the LGU-based quarantine facilities apart from quarantine violation charges while their family members are locked down, he added.

Yap encouraged the mayors to find additional quarantine facilities and the barangay chairpersons to regularly check for any newly-arrived persons in their areas.

He bared that several thousands more Boholanos elsewhere in the country have shown their intention to come home, including those who have lost jobs or have been economically dislocated by the pandemic.

Yap asked Department of the Interior and Local Government ((DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año not to suspend the LSI program, but to only gradually transport LSIs to their places of origin.

Meanwhile, LSIs coming from within Central Visayas will be welcome in Bohol as long as they coordinate with their respectie LGUs, Yap clarified that there was no truth to the report he stopped the transport of the LSIs from the Ouano wharf in Mandaue City to Tagbilaran City.

The governor also said LSIs from Cebu province may return to Bohol, except those from Cebu City which is now being considered as an emerging epicenter of COVID-19.