MANILA – The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases’ (IATF-EID) decision to have unified travel protocol is expected to boost domestic tourism that was badly hit by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Tourism secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said the simplified travel restrictions will ease cross-border trips particularly to Filipinos planning to travel during summer.
“Sakto lang ito (unified travel protocol) para maka-restart ang ating tourism at magkaroon na ng trabaho ang lahat ng nawalan ng trabaho,” Puyat said in an interview with ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo on Saturday.
According to the result of survey they conducted, the secretary said, majority of the people are willing to travel but are confused with the documents required by some local government units (LGU).
“Mayroong PNP (Philippine National Police) permit, medical certificate, affidavit of undertaking, so ngayon, medyo confusing,” said Puyat. “Ngayon wala na ang lahat ng travel protocols except kapag hiningi ng LGU ang RT-PCR [result].”
In an online briefing aired at PTV4 on Saturday, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque announced that IATF-EID has uniform travel protocols for all modes of transportation and public movement.
According to Roque, the protocols were drafted by the Department of the Interior and Local Government in coordination with the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines, the League of Provinces of the Philippines, the League of Municipalities of the Philippines, and the League of Cities of the Philippines.
“Hindi na po required na sumailalim sa COVID-19 testing ang isang biyahero liban na lang kung ang LGU of destination ay humihingi ng testing bago ang biyahe. Ang testing ay limitado lang po sa RT-PCR test. Hindi na rin po required na mag-quarantine ang biyahero liban na lang kung sila ay nagpakita ng sintomas pagdating sa LGU of destination,” he added.
Based on the data from the Department of Tourism, the country lost an estimated P400 billion potential revenue from international tourists last year due to the pandemic./PN
