Roque denies Nograles’ claims on easing outbound travel restrictions

IATF and presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, and IATF vice chair and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles.

MANILA, Philippines — The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has not approved the supposed relaxation of outbound travel restrictions on Filipinos wishing to reunite with their foreign partners, IATF spokesperson Harry Roque said Monday.

“Let me clarify: Outbound, iyong mga paalis, wala pa pong agreement in principle. Hindi ko po alam kung saan nanggaling iyong impormasyon na there was an agreement in principle,” Roque said in a televised press briefing.

(Let me clarify: Outbound travel, the departures, there is no agreement in principle yet. I do not know where the information came from that there was an agreement in principle.)

The Palace official was contradicting IATF vice-chair and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, who announced over the weekend that the task-force has relented to the pleas of “long-distance relationship” couples kept apart by the pandemic.

The government is implementing restrictions on people traveling from countries with active COVID-19 cases to contain the coronavirus, which has infected more than 37 million people worldwide.

All foreigners can leave the country anytime but Filipinos are not allowed to leave unless they are overseas Filipino workers or permanent residents or holders of a student visa in their country of destination.

“Ang outbound po, it’s still limited to essential travel. Ang inbound, sarado pa rin tayo sa turismo. It will be for a specific urgent purpose and it will have to be endorsed by a line agency of government that has jurisdiction over the purpose of the alien in coming to the Philippines,” Roque said.

(Outbound travel is still limited to essential travel. Inbound, we are still closed to tourism. It will be for a specific urgent purpose and it will have to be endorsed by a line agency of government that has jurisdiction over the purpose of the alien in coming to the Philippines.)

EDV