By EMMIE V. ABADILLA***
Philippine Airlines announced Saturday it can no longer accept foreigners flying in from the United States effective 12:01 a.m. Jan. 3 to 15 after the government included the US on the list of countries covered by the travel ban to curb contagion from the new strain of COVID-19 virus.
The travel ban specifically covers foreign passengers from the US or foreign travelers who have been in the US within 14 days preceding their planned arrival in the Philippines.
On the other hand, Filipino citizens originating from the US or who have traveled to the US within 14 days prior to their scheduled arrival in the Philippines and are arriving in the country within Jan. 3 to 15 shall be accepted on PAL flights to the Philippines.
However, they will be required to undergo 14-day quarantine in a stringent quarantine facility.
All passengers – whether Filipino citizens or foreigner nationals – who are originating from the US or who have traveled to the US within the 14-day period prior to entering the Philippines and are arriving before 12:01 a.m. Jan. 3 will not be prohibited from entering the country but will have to undergo a 14-day quarantine in a stringent quarantine facility.
Passengers allowed to enter the Philippines from the US within the period of the travel ban must undergo RT-PCR testing on arrival.
An absolute 14-day quarantine must be completed even if a passenger gets a negative result on the RT-PCR test.
Returning Overseas Filipinos may choose their own quarantine hotel from the list of Department of Tourism-hotels for stringent quarantine.
The restrictions are mandated by the latest resolution of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Infectious Diseases (IATF) restricting travel into the Philippines from specified countries as a protection measure against the new variant of the SARS-CoV 2 Virus.
This latest Philippine government travel restriction brings to 21 the total number of flagged countries.
PAL continues to operate flights to Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Canada, and the US subject to existing passenger restrictions.
The countries now covered by passenger restrictions on flights to the Philippines are:
- Denmark
- Ireland
- Japan
- Australia
- Israel
- The Netherlands
- Hong Kong
- Switzerland
- France
- Germany
- Iceland
- Italy
- Lebanon
- Singapore
- Sweden
- South Korea
- South Africa
- Canada
- Spain
- United Kingdom
- United States
Affected passengers may rebook on the next available flights after the restriction period, with rebooking service fees waived.
They may also refund the cost of their ticket with refunding service fees waived. A third available option is the conversion of the PAL ticket into a travel voucher for future use.
PAL will cooperate closely with government authorities in support of all measures that seek to curb any potential increase in COVID-19 cases.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) will impose the entry travel ban on alien passengers from the United States starting midnight of Jan. 3.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said the US was included in the list based on instruction from Malacanang.
The BI chief said, however, that Filipinos and their families will still be allowed entry subject to 14-day quarantine upon arrival.
Likewise, he said alien passengers who are only transiting will be allowed entry provided they stay at the airport. (With a report from Jun Ramirez and Ariel Fernandez)