Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Jaime Morente announced that the travel restrictions for passengers from the United Kingdom (UK) have been extended up to Jan 14.
As directed by President Duterte in a meeting of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF,) flights from the UK remain banned for two more weeks after December 31, 2020," the BI chief stated.
The ban was an offshoot of the discovery of a new super spreader variant of COVID-19 in the UK, which is reportedly 70 percent more infectious than the original disease.
In related news, the BI vowed to expedite the implementing regulations for Executive Order No. 122 strengthening border control through the adoption of the Advance Passenger Information System (APIS).
The BI was initially given 60 days from the publication of EO 122 last December 15, but Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Menardo Guevarra recommended its immediate implementation to allow the BI to better trace origins and connecting flights.
“The API system is very timely as it would allow us to deny the boarding of passengers who have a travel history to the UK in the last 14 days, instead of having to detect them upon arrival in the country,” said Morente.
The APIS is an electronic communications system that collects biographic data on passengers or crew, which is transmitted to the BI prior to arrival, and allows for early vetting on the admissibility of an arriving alien.
Currently, the BI is implementing a strict 100 percent passport inspection to determine the travel history of arriving passengers in the last 14 days.