QUEZON CITY, Oct. 27 -- Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion expressed optimism that the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) would approve its proposal allowing no quarantine for returning Filipinos and visitors from North America.

“We hope that the IATF would agree to our suggestion to allow no quarantine for travelers from North America as this would encourage returning Filipinos and other visitors to travel to the Philippines and to be with their loved ones,” said Concepcion.

As a big market for airlines, Concepcion said North America can help the local aviation industry recover from the huge losses that they have suffered during this pandemic as lockdowns prevented people from traveling to various parts of the country and the world.  

“If we can implement this regulation immediately, it would also be a happy Christmas for our airline industry as many Filipinos and other visitors would want pack their bags and return to the Philippines and celebrate Christmas here with loved ones who they haven’t seen for a long time,” Concepcion stressed.

During the arrival of the AstraZeneca vaccine purchase by Go Negosyo through its “A Dose of Hope” vaccination program for private sector workers, Concepcion said vaccine czar Sec. Carlito Galvez ensured that there will be enough vaccines arriving until the 1st quarter of 2022.

“The available vaccines will ensure that family members our Balikbayans will go home to, are also protected from hospitalization. Let’s give them a chance to be reunited,” Concepcion added.

The Go Negosyo founder also emphasized that the increased inbound traffic and the influx of returning Filipinos from North America would greatly benefit the economy, particularly the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Concepcion has been working with the local airline industry to convince the government to relax its travel guidelines to encourage Filipinos to travel to various parts of the country to help revive the aviation sector and tourism-related businesses such as hotels, travel agents and operators.

In his last meeting with IATF adviser Dr. Edsel Salvana, Concepcion presented the proposals of the aviation industry, including the shelving of multiple requirements for traveling, such as RT-PCR test for most local destinations and long quarantine for passengers of international flights.

Salvana, for his part at that time, promised to raise the concerns of the stakeholders to the IATF,  saying he also understands the plight of the airline industry.

Concepcion, OCTA Research experts Prof. Ranjit Rye and Fr. Nick Austriaco and representatives and officials from local airlines met with Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., Transportation Secretary Art Tugade and Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez to discuss the possibility of implementing no-quarantine policy for North America.

Go Negosyo and the country’s flag-carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) recently presented their plan to pilot-test the no-quarantine policy on travelers from North America.

They also proposed the frontloading of the testing process before passengers arrive in the country and expanding international gateways to reduce the number of arrivals at the NAIA terminals.

During their meeting with the government officials, Concepcion said the country should reciprocate the United States’ policy to require travelers from the Philippines to present a negative RT-PCR test and proof of vaccination status as travel requirements by implementing a no-quarantine policy.

Fr. Austriaco, for his part, stressed during his presentation that new infections in the Philippines cannot be attributed to international arrivals, claiming that arriving international passengers account for only 1.8 cases out of the 6,000 average new cases.

Citing a pre-publication paper still awaiting peer review, Fr. Austriaco said the risk of transmitting the virus is lower among vaccinated persons.  

Philippine Airlines echoed Fr. Austriaco’s pronouncement, saying that based on its monitoring of positivity rates among its inbound international passengers, positivity rates among inbound passengers from North America have been relatively low because 90 percent of passengers from that region are vaccinated.

Romualdez said the Philippine Embassy in the United States is willing to support the documentation and authentication of vaccination records for arriving passengers to ensure that they are indeed vaccinated. Vaccination is also not an issue for US-based Filipinos as 90 percent of them are already inoculated against COVID-19, added Romualdez.

The Philippine envoy to the US also said that Boston-based company has offered to pilot-test a PCR testing technology which can pool testing among passengers and have their results available upon their arrival in the Philippines.  

“This can greatly ease the waiting time of arriving passengers at the NAIA, many of whom have already spent hours on the plane and must contend with spending even more time lining up for testing at the airport,” he said.

Sec. Locsin agreed with the proposed frontloading of the testing process, saying it would help reduce the long lines and waiting time for arriving passengers who are already weary from the long travel.

Sec. Tugade said the agency is open to the proposal of adding more gateways for international passengers in other areas, including Clark, Cebu, Laoag, Bicol and Zamboanga, to address the bottlenecks now being experienced at the NAIA terminals.

“Filipinos look forward to Christmas every year. It is best spent at home with family. We need to give our balikbayans the chance to be with their loved ones,” Concepcion stressed.     (MCG, PIA-IDPD/Go Negosyo)