Senator Joel Villanueva welcomed on Friday the National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19's decision to reconsider its travel ban for returning overseas Filipinos.
(Senate of the Philippines / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
"First of all, praise God that our task force listened to the Senate and nagkaroon ng accomplishment (there was some accomplishment from our hearing yesterday)," Villanueva, chairman of the Senate labor committee, said in an interview with CNN Philippines Friday, March 19.
"Pangalawa, gusto nating banggitin na dapat hindi na to maulit (Secondly, we want to say that this should not be repeated)," he continued.
On Thursday, senators questioned the NTF's order for temporary ban on the entry foreign nationals and migrant Filipinos who are not overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to the Philippines, and the imposition of 1,500 daily cap on OFW arrivals in the country's gateways.
The NTF, in a memorandum signed also March 18, later retracted its earlier order and has now allowed "all Filipino citizens, whether a returning overseas Filipino or OFWs...to return to the Philippines."
The latest memorandum, however, maintained that inbound travels are subject to an "arrival quota" set by the Department of Transportation (DOTr).
The DOTr said on Friday that the March 15 advisory of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) on the 1,500 daily passenger cap at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) stands.
Villanueva said such "unclear, uncoordinated, and unimplementable" policies are caused "big troubles" for airline companies and Filipinos who have already books their flights only to be cancelled.
"A lot of our OFWs, before they come here in the Philippines or they come back to see their loved ones, it would take about six, eight to one year of planning. You would have to ask for permission from their employer, so 'yong one month na bakasyon hindi biro po 'yan, talagang piniprepare nang husto 'yan (so that one-month vacation is no joke, that they are really preparing for it),"
"Kahit masaya tayo inayos po nila ito (And while we are happy that they rectified this), 'yong (the) flip-flopping of our policy would continue to hurt us, our economy and especially the stakeholders," he said.