MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Wednesday backed the Department of Tourism’s (DOT) proposal to allow fully vaccinated individuals to enter the country.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said the setting up of a ‘green lane’ for vaccinated foreigners would help “resuscitate” the tourism industry, should the Interagency Taskforce on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) allow it.
“If approved by the IATF-EID, we in the Bureau, support this initiative by the Department of Tourism as it will not only resuscitate our tourism industry, it will also generate employment for millions of Filipinos who lost their jobs due to the pandemic,” Morente said in a statement.
He also noted that this proposal would also help revive the commercial aviation and shipping industry.
“Once these ‘green lanes’ are set up, operations in our international airports and seaports hopefully will begin to return to normal,” Morente noted.
BI is one of the government agencies which is part of the small working group (SWG) led by the Department of Foreign Affairs.
The SWG was formed to study the feasibility of implementing the ‘green lane’ scheme and formulate related health protocols.