Non-profit advocacy group Go Negosyo is proposing to ease the restriction on travelers from North America in a bid to give overseas Filipinos an opportunity to spend Christmas with their family here.
"Give our balikbayans a chance to come home this Christmas," Presidential adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion appealed to the national government in a statement Sunday, Nov. 7.
The US and Canada are not included in the country's so-called "green list." Travelers from these countries are required to undergo a COVID-19 test after five days at a quarantine facility.
The quarantine time, according to the group, has been cited as the primary reason most travelers from North America put off their travel plans to the country this holiday season.
Concepcion has proposed that travelers coming from North America be tested before boarding and then tested at home or at a quarantine hotel once they arrive in the Philippines. The proposed system, he added, will necessitate confirmed schedules from the passengers.
“Testing before departure and testing upon arrival with no quarantine required will be beneficial for a lot of balikbayans wanting to see their families," Concepcion said.
"They can do testing at their homes if within NCR or in a facility for one day if they are from other places. We can do this to give peace of mind to our returning Filipinos and their loved ones. Waiting for a negative test result is a small price to pay compared to this reassurance,” he explained.
Concepcion cited data from the country’s flag carrier, Philippine Airlines, which show that positivity rates among inbound passengers from North America have been relatively low.
Independent research group OCTA's assessment on the additional COVID cases in the country last October found that based on an average of 6,000 swabs performed on inbound passengers per month, there was a 0.9 percent positivity rate, translating to 54 cases per month or 1.8 cases per day, "which is very low compared to local transmissions of the virus."
It was also observed that local transmissions account for almost all of the new COVID-19 cases in the country today, and that the fact that there have been no variants of concern since Delta should be considered in assessing the risk involved in receiving travelers from North America, OCTA's Fr. Nick Austriaco said.
“The increased vaccination rates and the dip in new COVID-19 cases should be reason enough for the IATF to consider easing restrictions on travelers coming from North America,” Concepcion said. “Our kababayans want to come back and reunite with their loved ones.”
In a forum hosted by Go Negosyo last month, US Ambassador Jose Romualdez shared that 90 percent of US-based Filipinos have already 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.
Concepcion said that easing travel restrictions for North America can help boost economic activity in the country during the fourth quarter of the year, and even more so if travelers from other countries are included in the eased quarantine restrictions proposal.
“Many MSMEs are counting on the increased holiday and pre-election spending to help them recover from the losses during the pandemic. They will be able to pay back their loans and earn enough to provide for their workers’ 13th month pay. There are many things that depend on letting our kababayans come home this Christmas,” he said.