THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) welcomed proposals for a Covid-19 passport for international travelers.
The agency said this will speed up immigration processing at the airports and facilitate the revival of tourism and travel industry in the country.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente expressed the bureau’s support for
initiatives to create a global Covid-19 passport that the Department of Tourism (DOT) said will usher in the entry of more tourists as it would streamline entry procedures.
Morente said current procedures requiring arriving international travelers to be tested at the airport could pose problems to the BI in the near future as the country reopens its borders to more foreigners, especially tourists.
“The anticipated influx of more international travelers could result in longer queues and overcrowding in our immigration counters as all of these passengers should be tested at the airport before they are allowed to enter the country,” the BI chief said.
He said the use of a Covid-19 passport will show that a traveler was vaccinated and is free of the virus.
The conduct of immigration formalities for arriving passengers would be faster and easier and people congestion at the airports would be lessened if not avoided, according to Morente.
He said Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat has disclosed that the Covid-19 passport would facilitate international travel with stringent health and safety measures in place, as it will assure countries that visiting tourists are vaccinated and Covid-free.
Earlier, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that it plans to launch a so-called IATA travel pass, which was described as a global and standardized solution to validate and authenticate country regulations on Covid-19 passenger travel requirements.
The IATA said the project aims to create a digital system that will enable passengers to verify that their test or vaccination meets existing Covid-19 travel regulations.
“The importance of this proposed Covid-19 passport cannot be underestimated when our country fully reopens its borders to all international travelers,” Morente said.
He said he foresees travelers to again begin arriving in the country in droves by the second half of next year when the Covid-19 vaccine is seen to be available in the country.
“We are hopeful that trust and confidence in international travel will be, little by little, renewed,” he said.
