日: 2022年2月8日

BI says not all alien tourists can enter PHL without a visa beginning Feb. 10

/ Manila Shimbun

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) clarified that only fully-vaccinated foreigners coming from more than 150 countries listed in an executive order can enter the Philippines without a visa starting on Feb. 10.

In an advisory, BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said foreigners whose country of nationality is not listed under Executive Order No. 408 cannot avail of the visa-free privilege, thus they are required to secure visas before traveling to the Philippines.

Under the said EO, nationals from 157 countries may be admitted into the country without a visa for an initial stay of 30 days.

Said countries include Canada, Japan, Singapore, USA, New Zealand, Malaysia, and South Korea.

Morente said that foreign tourists from countries not listed under EO 408 need to secure a 9(a) visa and an entry exemption document (EED) through any of the Philippine embassies or consulates abroad.

“They should also be fully vaccinated or they will be denied entry even if they have valid 9(a) visas and EED,” he added.

The BI chief stressed that all foreigners entering the country are now required to present the appropriate proof of full vaccination as set by the IATF or they will be turned back at the airports and booked on the first available flight to their port of origin.

Morente, meanwhile, explained that former Filipinos qualified to avail of the one-year Balikbayan privilege should also be fully vaccinated before they could enter the country.

The Balikbayan program allows former Filipinos, including their foreign spouse and dependents who are traveling with them, to enter the country visa-free for one year.

The IATF also ruled that arriving alien tourists are required to present a negative RT-PCR test, taken at least 48 hours prior to their departure from their country of origin, a return ticket, a passport valid for at least 6 months, and a travel and health insurance for Covid-19 with a minimum coverage of US$35,000 valid for the entire duration of their stay. Bureau of Immigration

7,000 kids aged 5-11 inoculated vs COVID-19

/ Manila Shimbun

 

ko oo At least 7,000 children aged five to 11 years old were inoculated with COVID-19 vaccines during the initial launch for pediatric vaccination on Monday,

National Task Force (NTF) COVID-19 Chief implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said a total of 7,416 kids were vaccinated as of 4 pm on Monday.

“As of 4 o’clock, we have 7,416 during our launch. We were expecting much lower but we saw that it reached 7,416. So if it is raised to 10,000, we will become successful,” he said during Talk to The People on Monday night.

Galvez said despite the noise of the “anti-vaxxers” there was overwhelming support from different medical associations, particularly the Philippine Pediatric Association, the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society of the Philippines, the Philippine Medical Association, the private sector, and the US Embassy, WHO and UNICEF that participated in the opening ceremony.

“We started the launch this Monday and we will continue our mini-rollout until February 9. So we will expand to all regions by February 14,” he said.

“Our concept is, we will start small but we will efficiently manage and closely supervised, and most of our pediatric society and the Philippine Medical Association are also supervising and what we will do is the phased and sequential in order to ensure the safety and successful implementation like what we did for the 12 to 17 years old,” he added. Robina Asido/DMS