Immigration bureau: Int’l travel restrictions remain despite NCR being placed in GCQ

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Friday said international travel restrictions at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) would remain enforced despite the easing of quarantine protocols in the National Capital Region.

In a statement, Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said travel restrictions implemented during the enhanced community quarantine and modified enhanced community quarantine are still in place unless the restrictions will be lifted by the national government.

"As a consequence, our operations at the NAIA are still downscaled and our personnel there are still on skeletal and rotational deployment," Morente said, adding that most of the international flights remain suspended.

"Nonetheless, we assure the public that we are always ready to resume full, normal operations in our international airports once the government decides to ease or lift these travel restrictions," he added.

Meanwhile, BI acting port operations chief Grifton Medina said immigration officers at the NAIA currently serve an average of 20 to 30 flights a day, adding that a third of these flights are to ferry medical supplies and other kinds of cargo into the country.

Medina said passenger flights are mostly repatriation flights for returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and chartered sweeper flights which bring foreigners stranded here back to their home countries.

The national government has said only OFWs, Filipino citizens and their spouses and dependents, permanent residents, and foreign diplomats are allowed to enter the country.

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

President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the recommendation to ease quarantine restrictions in Metro Manila, placing it under GCQ beginning June 1 wherein 10 to 50% of mass transport are allowed as well as 75% of the workforce per company to physically report back to work.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque defended Duterte's decision, saying that the government could not let its citizens stay out of work for too long as it adversely affects the Philippine economy. — RSJ, GMA News