{"id":278265,"date":"2020-12-10T19:45:08","date_gmt":"2020-12-11T00:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=278265"},"modified":"2020-12-10T19:45:08","modified_gmt":"2020-12-11T00:45:08","slug":"tourism-board-allots-p10-m-covid-19-test-subsidy-for-bohol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/12\/10\/tourism-board-allots-p10-m-covid-19-test-subsidy-for-bohol\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourism board allots P10-M Covid-19 test subsidy for Bohol"},"content":{"rendered":"
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No date has been set yet as to when tourists could start availing of the subsidized RT-PCR, but Bohol Governor Arthur Yap and TPB Chief Operating Officer Ma. Anthonette Velasco-Allones said both sides were working on the partnership’s details. (File photo: lorenz Narbs\/Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) has earmarked PHP10 million to subsidize the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) testing of travelers and tourism workers in Bohol as the island province announces its reopening to tourists beginning December 15.<\/p>\n

Tourism chief Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said the allocation would cover at least 50 percent of the traveler’s reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test, as well as the testing of tourism front-liners on the island.<\/p>\n

“This PHP10 million subsidy is for Bohol alone but not only to subsidize but also so that we can have our tourism workers tested to make sure all front-liners are safe,” Puyat said in a media briefing Tuesday.<\/p>\n

No date has been set yet as to when tourists could start availing of the subsidized RT-PCR, but Bohol Governor Arthur Yap and TPB Chief Operating Officer Ma. Anthonette Velasco-Allones said both sides were working on the partnership’s details.<\/p>\n

Velasco-Allones said the amount would come from its Special Contingency Fund, which allows diverse kinds of contingencies and special situations that the board could support.<\/p>\n

In a text message, she said similar support was likewise extended to several destinations, such as Boracay and Baguio City.<\/p>\n

“So far, we have supported Boracay (PHP10 million); Baguio City for antigen test trial (at) PHP1.8 million and additional subsidy now for rollout,”
\nVelasco-Allones said.<\/p>\n

A separate PHP10 million subsidy was also allocated for the RT-PCR test of all tourists regardless of the destination they are visiting, so long as the place has reopened.<\/p>\n

This is in partnership with the UP Philippine General Hospital, which currently charges PHP1,800 for a swab test.<\/p>\n

According to the Department of Tourism (DOT), no formal agreement has been signed yet.<\/p>\n

The initiative was proposed following the DOT and TPB’s assessment, months after Boracay reopened last October.<\/p>\n

“When we reopened Boracay last October, (there’s) a barrier that we discovered by monitoring stakeholders and social media feedbacks. Many cancellations occurred simply because tourists found the RT-PCR cost quite prohibitive,” Velasco-Allones said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) has earmarked PHP10 million to subsidize the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) testing of travelers …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":278266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-travel","mauthors-joyce-ann-l-rocamora","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":278267,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278265\/revisions\/278267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}