In a television interview, Tourism chief Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said the agency is eyeing to ink an agreement with the UP-PGH to cut by 50 percent the RT-PCR test cost originally priced between P1,800 and P1,900 per person.
“We’re looking at how to probably make travel vouchers because while P1,900 is already low-priced, we still want to make it more affordable. So we’re looking at making it sort of subsidized, 50 percent of the RT-PCR in UP-PGH,” she said in Filipino. “I’ll tell you about it once it’s finalized. But as it is, with UP-PGH it’s already P1,800, and results come out in 24 hours.”
Romulo-Puyat said the DOT wants the people to be able to travel, especially with the upcoming Christmas holiday.
She acknowledged that the cost for Covid-19 test is quite “prohibitive”, but noted that it is a requirement that cannot be taken out.
“The cost is prohibitive pero ‘di naman natin pwedeng tanggalin ang test before travel (but we cannot remove the test before travel). So when I found out about the UP-PGH, (we decided) we’re going to have a government-to-government agreement with them,” she said. (PNA)
