THE Philippines is ready to accept foreign tourists.
That’s according to Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat, who said she was proposing the reopening of the country’s borders to vaccinated international travelers once more. “Yes, we’re ready to open [to foreign tourists] because we know Omicron is very mild, especially if you’re vaccinated and boostered,” she said in a radio interview on Wednesday.
She added the country’s tourism workers are also prepared to accept foreign tourists as many of them are now getting their booster shots, a program of the Department of Tourism (DOT) in partnership with the National Task Force against Covid-19. “In Metro Manila, 55 percent of the tourism workers are now boostered, and we are already starting to boost tourism workers in Boracay and other [tourism destinations],” she said.
The DOT chief expressed hope that her proposal for reopening to international travelers would be approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) for implementation by February. The proposal covers vaccinated tourists from visa-free Green List countries like Japan and Indonesia, and thus no longer have to undergo quarantine upon arrival.
Last year, the IATF had actually approved the reopening of the country to vaccinated travelers from Green List countries with visa-free status, which was supposed to have taken effect on December 1, 2021, in time for the Christmas holidays. However, the emergence of the Covid Omicron variant forced the IATF to tighten travel restrictions, allowing only balikbayan tourists to visit their families in the Philippines.
Vacancies open up at isolation facilities
As this developed, the Bureau of Quarantine (BoQ) assured the public that there are now enough government isolation facilities for Covid-positive returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs), like balikbayans (homecoming Filipinos).
“There are available [isolation] facilities now. Everyday BoQ transfers more than 150 Covid-positives from quarantine hotels to isolation facilities,” said the agency’s Deputy Director Dr. Roberto M. Salvador in a Viber message to the BusinessMirror. He said these Covid-positives are from the National Capital Region, as well as Regions 3 (Central Luzon) and 4A (Calabarzon).
He failed to state the reason for the increased vacancies in isolation facilities, but noted in Filipino, “The positivity rate is still high among our arrivals. Since the second week of December, this increased to almost 300 per day until the third week of January. This slightly dropped now but still an average of 200 arrivals per day are testing positive.”
In December, BoQ had difficulty pulling out Covid-positive ROFs from quarantine hotels as isolation facilities were overrun with locally-infected residents along with Covid-positive overseas Filipino workers. This led to the IATF approving DOT’s recommendation to allow quarantining ROFs to continue their isolation in quarantine hotels. Many balikbayans, however, complained of having to pay for extra room nights for their isolation. Normally, in isolation facilities, government foots the bill for the guests’ stay.
The IATF also reduced the cap on international arrivals at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to 3,000 per day, from the previous 4,000 per day, to help manage the rising Covid cases.
‘No compromise on health and safety’
Meanwhile, Romulo Puyat said she is also proposing that fully vaccinated travelers from Yellow List countries such as the United States only quarantine for three days instead of the current five days. “I have to fight for the reopening because our tourism industry is struggling, there are many without work or are working just part time. The good thing is, our tourism workers are already vaccinated, so they are ready to accept foreign tourists,” she said in her interview with DZMM Teleradyo’s SRO program. But, “At the end of the day, we follow the doctors and health experts. If they say no, we can’t do anything. And we’ve always said, we will never compromise on health and safety.”
The IATF also recently approved the entry into the Philippines of fully vaccinated foreign travelers with accredited foreign vaccination cards starting February 16.