Task force working on online platform for quick processing of travel authority, permit

The Joint Task Force COVID Shield is working with various agencies in creating an online platform wherein all the required documents needed for local travels of non-authorized persons outside residence, including locally stranded individuals, could be accessed.

The Safe, Swift, and Smart Passage (S-PaSS) will serve as an online platform which will help the public to be informed of the travel protocols of various local government units and to secure a copy of a travel authority (TA) and a travel pass-through permit (TPP), according to the task force on Tuesday.

“Health experts said that we will have to live with the COVID-19 for a long time, which means that the requirement for travel authority or a travel pass-through Permit would be inevitable depending on the situations in the LGU-destinations,” task force chief Police Lieutenant General Guillermo Eleazar said in a press statement.

“Securing these travel documents through an online platform would be fast and comfortable for our kababayans, and would be in support of the decision of the national government, through the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID), to ease the travel restrictions as part of the effort to revive our economy,” he added.

The task force is currently coordinating with the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, and the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines. The pass was developed by DOST Region VI director Rowen Gelonga.

Eleazar said non-APORs, including LSIs, could apply for TA or TPP by filling out forms required by the online platform. Once the travel details are completed, the applicants could print the document and save in their gadgets for presentation to the cops manning border control checkpoints.

In acquiring travel authority, Eleazar reminded that a medical certificate from the city or municipal health office is still required. He added that for TPP, no other document is required.

"If the non-APORs, including LSIs, would go to an LGU requiring a Travel Authority, they no longer have to obtain a TPP since the Travel Authority alone is enough document to pass all the checkpoints in every LGUs," Eleazar said.

"But if the non-APORs, including LSIs, would go to an LGU with no restrictions or not requiring Travel Authority but they have to pass through an LGU or LGUs with travel restrictions, a TPP is important for them to be allowed to pass," he added.

Eleazar said while the IATF has already eased travel restrictions, some localities are still strict in accepting individuals in their areas.—AOL, GMA News