MANILA -- Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Jaime Morente remains hopeful that travel restrictions will ease up later this year despite the extended travel ban for passengers coming from 10 countries.

Morente said that the aggressive vaccination campaign of the Philippine government, as well as efforts worldwide, would help tourism revive.

“In 2020, we saw how international tourism has dropped as much as 70% worldwide. We remain hopeful that despite the challenges, international travel will have some semblance of normalcy in the near future,” said Morente. “For now, we are constrained to implement the travel ban to cripple the further spread of this virus,” he added.

Morente referred to the recently-extended travel restriction from passengers coming from 10 countries.

The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has recently extended the temporary travel ban from travelers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand until August 15.

According to BI Port Operations Division Chief Atty. Carlos Capulong, foreigners arriving from said countries with a travel history there within the last 14 days will be denied entry and immediately sent back to their port of origin.

Meanwhile, those merely transiting from the 10 countries are exempted from the travel ban. Transiting passengers are those who were only there for a layover and were not admitted by immigration authorities in the temporarily restricted country. Capulong stated that the extended ban has already been relayed to the airlines for their guidance. (BI)