Pinoys from US defer travel to PH due to quarantine – Joey Concepcion

MANILA, Philippines — Joey Concepcion, presidential adviser for entrepreneurship, has called on the national government to ease the restrictions on overseas Filipino workers, immigrants and families from North America and let them come home for the holidays.

The United States and Canada are still not part of the Philippines’ green-listed countries, or nations from which fully vaccinated travelers and foreign nationals are allowed to enter the Philippines without going through facility-based quarantine.

Travelers from these two countries are mandated to undergo a COVID-19 test after staying at a quarantine site for five days—a procedure Concepcion said was the primary reason travelers from North America were postponing their travel plans to the Philippines.

Tests before, after arrival

The Go Negosyo founder thus proposed a system wherein travelers will be tested before their boarding and tested again at home or in a quarantine facility as soon as they arrive here.

“Testing before departure and testing upon arrival with no quarantine required will be beneficial for a lot of balikbayans wanting to see their families. They can do testing at their homes if within [Metro Manila] or in a facility for one day if they are from other places,” he said.

He cited the increasing vaccination rate and the dip in the number of new COVID-19 cases as “reason enough” for the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to consider easing the restrictions.

“Our kababayans want to come back and reunite with their loved ones,” Concepcion said.

Meanwhile, US Ambassador Jose Romualdez in a Go Negosyo forum said that 90 percent of Filipinos in the United States had been vaccinated.

Many were also hoping to go back to the Philippines but were concerned about the quarantine rules imposed for countries not included in the green list. INQ