The Regional Inter Agency Task Force (RIATF) still has not responded to Bohol’s appeal to allow the playing of basketball more than a month after the proposal was raised by the province’s mayors amid the continued prohibition of contact sports as part of quarantine measures against COVID-19.

League of Municipalities (LMP) – Bohol president Mayor Miriam Sumaylo of Dauis said they needed the RIATF’s approval before local government units in the province can implement their plan to establish the “barangay basketball bubbles” in villages.

“Mananghid g’yud ta sa region, sila man ag gadili. Kay direct contact man lagi,” said Sumaylo.

Establishment of the so-called bubbles will allow residents to play basketball at playing courts within their own barangays.

The LMP raised the proposal after receiving multiple appeals from the public to lift the ban on the recreational playing of the sport as the province has been under modified general community quarantine, the least restrictive quarantine level, for over four months already.

Its recommendation was submitted to the Bohol IATF which in turn submitted the proposal to the RIATF for approval.

Meanwhile, several reports have indicated that some residents across the province have started to play the country’s beloved sport with authorities being lax in implementing the ban on contact sports.

The province of Bohol has 25 ongoing COVID-19 infections as of Monday.

BIATF spokesman Dr. Yul Lopez said that only three of these were identified as local transmission.

The rest of the cases involved locally stranded individuals, he added.

The relatively low number of active cases however only came two weeks after a sudden surge in cases at the onset of December in which ongoing infections reached a height of 154. (RT)