The Philippines is able to reopen its borders to completely vaccinated visitors from low-risk countries following a Department of Tourism (DOT) submission to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).
The Department of Transportation said Friday that IATF-EID has “approved in principle the admission of fully vaccinated visitors from green-listed countries, territories and jurisdictions,” with final approval prone to be issued in late November.
China, Hong Kong, Japan, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates are among the many 44 countries and destinations on the Philippines’ green list. South Korea, the normal primary supplier of tourism services within the Philippines, is just not on the list, however the Department of Transportation recently announced that it’s within the strategy of negotiating a travel bubble agreement with South Korean authorities.
Berna Romulo-Puyat, secretary of the Department of Transportation, said reopening borders to foreign travelers who’ve received vaccinations certified by the Food and Drug Administration or the World Health Organization is a key step toward the country’s economic recovery.
“Allowing travelers from green countries or areas with high vaccination rates and low disease rates would significantly strengthen our recovery efforts, including by increasing tourist arrivals and revenues,” she said. “This step will even help increase consumer confidence, which contributes significantly to the expansion of our gross domestic product, or GDP.
“Our ASEAN neighbors such as Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia have taken the same position. We believe it is now time to reopen our borders to incoming tourists to achieve a complete economic recovery.”
Puyat noted that the Department of Transportation can also be developing a vaccine travel lane program that will allow select tourists from “yellow list” countries to enter the United States if certain requirements are met.
The incident occurred on Sunday because the Philippines expanded its newly introduced alert level system within the National Capital Region to the whole country.
A brand new alert level system was adopted within the NCR in mid-September, allowing for broader restrictions but detailed lockdowns of cities, streets and even specific facilities of concern.
