IATF’s Valentine’s gift

EHowever, this Philippine hospitality is not extended to foreign nationals who have not taken any anti-COVID jabs yet.

xactly 23 months ago, our country closed down its borders from the rest of the global community following the early onset here of the deadly coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. From all indicative signs though, our country seems to be on the way out of the latest wave of COVID-19 pandemic due to the Omicron variant. And hopefully soon we might be able to follow the leads of other COVID-impacted countries in eventually doing away with mandatory facemasks and social distancing.

But for now, we must continue observing these minimum basic health protocols to protect ourselves from the ever-present risks of evolving mutations of the COVID-19. Thus, we all welcome the latest adjustments done by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) with the sustained downtrend in COVID-19 cases.

In fact, we started this month with the lowering to Alert Level 2 the entire National Capital Region (NCR) and other areas from the previous category of moderate risk. Now observed as low risk, the NCR and other areas must ensure not to let our guards down to prevent another COVID surge.

Like many other countries, we have re-opened our doors to all foreign nationals for business and tourism from countries that have visa-free arrangements with the Philippines. Effective last Feb.10, the IATF did away with the color-coding of countries on the basis of severity of COVID-19 cases and lifted the travel ban on non-essential travels. Thus, all inbound arrivals, including foreign tourists from non-visa countries, returning overseas Filipinos, and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) will no longer be required to undergo facility-based quarantine provided they have full dose of anti-COVID vaccines and negative swab test results 48 hours before they departed from the country of origin.

However, this Philippine hospitality is not extended to foreign nationals who have not taken any anti-COVID jabs yet.

For the unvaccinated inbound foreign travellers, they must still undergo quarantine-based facility on top of other requirements. And this included being subject to the 5,000 maximum quota of international arrivals per day in the Philippines. The same requirements apply for inbound arrivals of unvaccinated, partially vaccinated, or Filipino nationals whose vaccination status cannot be independently validated.

When the IATF increased international arrivals in Manila to 5,000 from 3,000 last Feb. 4, the new quota — total of Filipinos and foreigners combined -- applies only to unvaccinated travellers.

According to Cielo Villaluna, official spokesperson of the Philippine Airlines (PAL), our national flag carrier has an allocation of 32% of the quota. This accounts for 1,600 “unvaxxed warm bodies that (sic) can be flown in by PAL daily,” Villaluna cited. “What we carry beyond, or carry above 1,600, are the FULLY VAXXED,” she added.

On the first day of our country’s re-opening last Thursday, the IATF further amended its guidelines that removed the return ticket requirement for fully vaccinated inbound arrivals. This included foreign spouses of Filipinos and their children from the same visa-free countries. They have been stranded abroad and could not go back to the Philippines after the COVID-19 travel ban took effect on March 15, 2020. For the past two years, these couples and families have long been separated and celebrated Valentine’s Day far apart from each other.

This comes as an advance Valentine’s gift of the IATF to Filipinos with foreign spouses and fiances separated for the longest time by the pandemic.

All they have to do is comply with the required protocols such as to register with the www.onehealthpass.com. ph prior to arrival in the Philippines. According to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), visa-free foreign nationals may enter the Philippines for business and tourism if they:

– qualify as former Filipino citizens with Balikbayan privilege including spouse and/or children travelling with them (provided they are not restricted nationals); or,

– are citizens/nationals of the (157) countries listed entitled to stay up to 30 days.

Those who wish to extend their stay beyond the allowable 30-day period are required to submit visa entry and visa exemption documents that are accessible in any Philippine Embassy or consulate, the DFA advised. Through these past months, DFA Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. has been the most besieged by Filipinos separated by COVID-19 pandemic from their foreign spouses and children staying abroad as well as those with foreign fiances and sweethearts.

Fervent appeals were being sent to Locsin, mostly through his Twitter account where he actively engages with the public. A member of the IATF, Locsin and his deputies at the DFA like undersecretary Dodo Dulay can now play Cupid for these separated families and lovers. “As we start opening our borders today (Feb.10), visafree foreign nationals should be mindful about ALL the entry requirements. Or else they may be denied admission into Philippines,” Dulay posted on his Twitter account.

A case in point was the case of four Malaysians who were refused entry during the first day of the country’s re-opening of borders. They were among the 8,000 passengers—about 30% of them foreigners—who arrived that day at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). But upon scrutiny of the required documents, the four Malaysians allegedly presented “problematic” vaccination cards and were sent immediately back to Kuala Lumpur.

So far, the Philippine government has entered into reciprocity agreements that recognize each other’s vaccine certificates from countries like South Korea, Timor-Leste, Brazil and Israel as long as they passed the scrutiny of our respective Quarantine authorities.

IATF co-chairman and concurrently Cabinet Secretary Karlo Alexi Nograles disclosed last week they will announce the new Alert Level by today. Coinciding with Valentine celebration, the desired lowering to low risk Alert Level 1 is still a heart beat away, for now.