With the community quarantine everywhere to fight the spread of COVID-19, there are speculations that there might be a chance that this virus could enter through the “backdoor” of Palawan, the Municipality of Balabac, which is near Malaysia.
This is downplayed by the Balabac Tourism Officer Danny Boy Harani in an interview with Palawan Daily News, insisting that the speculation is not true and that intensive measures are in place to secure the “backdoor”.
“Mahigpit pong pinagbabawal dito yan, sobrang higpit po naming. Backdoor sabi nila, pero sa mga panahong nagkaroon ng krisis, talagang mino-monitor namin, yung byahe talaga dun mahigpit talaga. Nag-order si mayor sa amin na talagang imo-monitor namin. Kaya lahat ng kapitan kaninang tanghali hanggang kaninang hapon na bawal na bawal talaga yun,” Harani said.
Since the pronouncement of President Rodrigo Duterte, the local government unit of Balabac assured Palawan that there will be no foreigners or even Filipinos travelling via the backdoor that might be a carrier of COVID-19.
He clarified that there is no regular route from any island of Balabac or to any town in Malaysia even before.
Harani said that the regular trip they have as allowed by the local Coast Guard is only for Balabac residents only in a vice versa route to Bataraza. All scheduled tours to different islands in Balabac, including the famous Onuk, are all cancelled since March 14 until further notice.