Pinoys’ foreign spouses, children allowed to enter Philippines

CEBU, Philippines — Traveling to the Philippines will be eased out further, at least to Filipinos and former Filipino citizens and their foreign spouses and children effective December 7.

This has been approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID).

IATF resolution no.85 states that Filipino citizens and even former Filipino citizen’s spouses and their children, regardless of age who are travelling with them, be allowed entry privileges to the Philippines based on Republic Act 6768 or the “Act Instituting the Balikbayan Program.”

The entry of these persons, however, depends if they are allowed visa-free entry here.

Filipino citizens and their families also need to pre-book a quarantine facility.

Aside from that, they also need to pre-booked COVID-19 testing at a laboratory operating at the airport.

This will also be subjected to the maximum capacity of in-bound passengers at the port and date of entry.

The commissioner of Immigration, though, has an exclusive prerogative to decide on waiver or recall of exclusion orders for the said foreign nationals.

The Bureau of Immigration is also directed to formulate the necessary guidelines by the IATF to ensure smooth implementations while the Department of Tourism has been directed to issue guidelines for the provision of sufficient accommodation for the said persons taking into account the release of Covid-19 test results. — KQD (FREEMAN)