MANILA, Philippines — The government’s COVID-19 task force returned restrictions on non-essential outbound air travel of Filipinos, Malacañang said Thursday.
This, after only one insurance company agreed to adhere with the conditions to cover rebooking, accommodation expenses and hospitalization should a traveler contract the virus, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said.
“Isa sa mga kondisyon doon ay ang pagkakaroon ng travel at health insurance to cover rebooking and accommodation expenses if stranded at hospitalization kung sakaling may infection,” Roque said in an online briefing.
(One of the conditions was to have travel and health insurance to cover rebooking and acommodation expenses if stranded and hospitalization in case there’s an infection.)
“Ang nakakalungkot po, iisang travel insurance lang sa Pilipinas ang pumayag sa ganitong travel and health insurance kaya sinuspinde muna ng IATF (Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases) ang non-essential outbound travel,” he added.
(But sadly, only one travel insurance in the Philippines agreed to this kind of travel and health insurance that’s why the IATF suspended non-essential outbound travel.)
Roque, however, noted that travelers with confirmed bookings as of July 20 will be allowed to fly out of the country.
The IATF earlier allowed outbound non-essential travel provided that traveling individuals will adhere to the following conditions:
-Submission of confirmed roundtrip tickets for those traveling on tourist visas
-Adequate travel health insurance to cover rebooking and accommodation expenses
-Allowed entry by the destination country in accordance with travel, health and quarantine restrictions
-Execution of a Declaration acknowledging the risk of the travel
It was in March when the government barred Filipinos, excluding overseas workers, permanent residents abroad, and holders of student visas, from flying out of the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic.