Deadline for travel passes: Aug. 12

CEBU, Philippines — Residents of Cebu province working in Cebu City have until tomorrow, August 12, to register and process their work travel pass (WTP) in order to cross borders between the province and the city.

The Capitol was supposed to implement the WTP requirement earlier but postponed it so affected individuals can have more time to process their application the WeTrace app.

“This is to give more time for the workers to process their applications,” read the advisory of Capitol through Sugbo News, the Capitol-run news online portal.

In the advisory, workers who do not have smartphones need to coordinate with their respective local government units (LGUs) for them to be assisted on their applications.

A number of residents in the province who are working in Cebu City expressed concern on their applications earlier. Some commented that their application remains pending until now while others complained that the app does not work on their phones.

On its Facebook page, the WeTrace-Community Tracing App posted steps on how to register.

First step is to go to work.wetrace.ph and then choose “CLICK HERE TO APPLY” for the applicant to start his/her registration. The applicant will then need to fill out the required fields and then click on “Scan” on the QR code field (enable camera permissions, if asked).

The applicant then has to open the WeTrace app and scan the assigned QR Code. Next is to upload all the necessary document and then the applicant must click “SUBMIT” to send the Work Pass request.

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia issued Executive Order No. 20-C identifying the persons permitted to enter the territorial jurisdiction of the province of Cebu from Cebu City, and vice versa.

According to the EO, applicants must present their medical certificate, company ID, updated certificate of employment and ID picture upon their online application.

“LGUs may require the presentation of additional documents from applicants to verify the authenticity of their representations,” it read.

Once the registration is approved, the LGU shall send a "point-to-point" WTP to the mobile phone of the worker thru the WeTrace app.

The WTP that will be issued to the workers must indicate the name of the worker and his or her photo, name of the LGU of residence, point of origin and point of destination, company name, signature of the mayor, QR code and control number which will be assigned to different LGUs.

Garcia said requiring the residents of the province who are working in Cebu City to have WTP through WeTrace app is a measure to monitor the workers that they would not go to other places aside from work in the city and their home in the province.

Garcia said the rise of the number of Covid cases in the province was attributed to the reopening of borders with Cebu City when the latter was first downgraded to GCQ in June. — JMD (FREEMAN)