SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) said it eased the entry restrictions on travelers and vessels from Taiwan late Friday after Malacañang announced that it has scrapped the temporary travel ban which has affected the operations of some investor-companies here.
SBMA Chairman Wilma T. Eisma said the Subic agency followed suit in lifting the ban after the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases eased travel restrictions “because of strict measures being undertaken by Taiwan to contain the spread of the new coronavirus or COVID-19.”
She added that the travel restrictions on Taiwan which was affirmed by the SBMA only last Tuesday “will now be rescinded pursuant to this new directive.”
Sources at the SBMA Business and Investment Department said some Taiwanese businessmen in Subic had asked for assistance to reenter the Philippines after being caught in Taiwan when the ban was imposed.
Currently, the Subic Bay Freeport Zone hosts more than 50 Taiwanese firms with over $500 million worth of investments and about 15,000 jobs generated.
Last Friday, a group of prospective Taiwanese investors resorted to teleconferencing in order to discuss investment proposals with SBMA officials when the ban was still in place.
Eisma said the SBMA board of directors formally approved a temporary travel ban on China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, as well as other countries affected by COVID-19 in face of the growing threat of infection.
“While Subic is a global trade gateway, we have to enforce this ban on persons and ships from affected countries, and other safety precautions to protect the stakeholders of Subic Bay,” Eisma said in a statement released early Friday.
Subic toed the national government’s line imposing the temporary travel ban in the face of World Health Organization’s assessment placing more than 43,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 throughout the world and more than a thousand deaths since the outbreak early this year in Wuhan, China.
The affected countries included the Philippines, which recorded the first COVID-19 death outside of China, and 23 others—South Korea, Nepal, Vietnam, India, Thailand, Japan, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, Italy, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Australia, Canada and the United States.
Under Board Resolution 20-02-1610, the SBMA imposed a temporary ban on the entry of persons, regardless of nationality, who come directly from China, or any of its special administrative regions (SARs), or had traveled to these places within 14 days prior to arrival in the Philippines.
The temporary ban applied as well to cruise ships and airplanes coming from COVID-affected countries, or carrying passengers from any country affected by the virus. The ban, however, did not cover Filipino citizens and holders of permanent residency visas issued by the Philippine government.
Eisma said that as part of precautions in Subic, she had asked offshore gaming operators here not to hire workers from China at the moment, while requiring foreign nationals applying for Alien Employment Permit to submit a medical certificate that he/she has no symptoms indicative of COVID-19 for the past 14 days.
The SBMA also ordered the mandatory physical inspection of all foreign nationals entering SBMA gates to check for body temperature, cough, colds and other symptoms associated with COVID-19, and required Subic residents, locators and employees who traveled from China, Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan in the past 14 days to stay at home for self-quarantine even if they did not exhibit any sign or symptom of respiratory infection.
The SBMA has also asked business locators to undertake daily thermal scanning of personnel in their offices and facilities, and to observe disinfection practices, for schools in the free port to suspend all off-campus activities, and for hotels operators to report any guest who has traveled from China, or any other affected countries in the past 14 days prior to check in for monitoring purposes.