Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion is prodding the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to do away with the lengthy facility-based quarantine requirement for arriving Filipinos from North America who are fully vaccinated.
In a statement Saturday, Oct. 30, Concepcion pointed out that the time needed to be spent on quarantine is the primary reason why most travelers from North America are putting off their travel plans to the Philippines this holiday season.
Under Concepcion’s proposal, travelers from the United States (US) and Canada are to be tested 48 hours before departure and then tested again once they arrive in the Philippines, either at their homes if they live within the Greater Manila area or at the quarantine hotel if they don’t have a place to stay. The proposed system will necessitate confirmed test schedules from the passengers.
“This already is such a substantial reduction from being tested only after the required five days spent at the quarantine hotel; they only have to spend one day at the hotel if they can’t do the testing at home,” said Concepcion.
The US and Canada weren't included in the Philippines’s green-list countries for the period of Nov. 1 to 15.
This means that even fully vaccinated travelers arriving from these countires are still required to undergo a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) test after spending five days at a quarantine facility. Meanwhile unvaccinated travelers, partially vaccinated, and those whose vaccination status are unclear are required to test after seven days in quarantine.
“A lot of our kababayans have been putting off their plans to go home and reunite with families this Christmas. We want to help them save money, so we are proposing an easier approach which is to test before departure and home quarantine upon arrival. They can just take the required RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) tests at home,” Concepcion said.
Easing testing and quarantine rules for passengers coming from the US and Canada will not only provide peace of mind and allow travelers to cut down on their costs, but it will also result in much-needed economic activity as the year ends. “As the Christmas spending starts, a lot of the country’s businesses will reap the benefits,” noted the Palace official.
Concepcion said that he is now working with the country’s flag carrier, Philippine Airlines (PAL), to align with testing laboratories and address the possible increase in demand for testing.
Concepcion had earlier organized a meeting that brought together the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Department of Transportation (DOTr), the Philippine Ambassador to the US, experts from the OCTA Research group, as well as representatives and officials from local airlines, including PAL.
During the meeting, several solutions were put forward to address the difficulty faced by arriving international passengers coming from North America. Among these solutions were the frontloading of the testing process prior to the arrival of passengers in the country and expanding international gateways to ease the load off the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) terminals.
These proposals are expected to greatly ease the waiting time of arriving passengers at the NAIA.
During the meeting, US Ambassador Jose Romualdez shared that 90 percent of US-based Filipinos have been vaccinated and that many are eager to fly to the Philippines but remain concerned about the quarantine protocols imposed on non-green listed countries like the US.