(Eagle News) — The Philippines has reimposed the ban on non-essential travel abroad by Filipinos.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque on Thursday, July 23, said the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases made the decision in light of the fact that only one insurance company in the country was willing to provide travel and health coverage in relation to COVID-19.
The travel and health insurance coverage was one of the requirements for Filipinos to go on non-essential travel abroad based on IATF guidelines announced early July.
Those with confirmed bookings for non-essential travel as of July 20, 2020 will, however, be allowed to leave the country, Roque said.
Apart from the requirement for adequate travel and health insurance to cover rebooking and accommodation expenses in case a traveler is stranded, and hospitalization in case of infection, the IATF had announced on July 7 that these conditions should be met for the non-essential travel abroad to be allowed to push through:
- Traveler should submit confirmed round-trip tickets for those travelling on tourist visas
- Traveler should be allowed entry by the destination country in accordance with their travel, health and quarantine restrictions
- Traveler should execute a declaration acknowledging the risks involved in traveling, including the risk of delay in their return trip, to be provided for in the check-in counters of the airlines
- Upon return, traveler should follow the guidelines made by the national task force for returning overseas Filipinos
“All of the foregoing is without prejudice to the exercise of the mandate of the Bureau of Immigration prior to departure,” the IATF had said.
