MANILA – The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has allowed non-essential outbound travel for Filipinos effective Oct. 21, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said.
“The policy will be beneficial to Filipinos who wish to visit their foreign partners abroad,” Roque announced during Friday’s Laging Handa virtual press conference.
Under the approved guidelines, Filipinos traveling abroad must have adequate travel and health insurance. Confirmed roundtrip tickets must be submitted for those traveling on tourist visas.
They must also follow the existing rules for returning overseas Filipinos, which includes undergoing quarantine in dedicated isolation facilities while waiting for a negative swab test result.
The IATF-EID’s latest move came after the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) allowed tourism and travel-related activities to resume under relaxed quarantine classifications.
The DTI issued a memorandum circular prescribing the re-categorization of travel agencies, tour operators, reservation service, and related activities from Category IV to Category III.
With the DTI memo, the said establishments are “allowed to reopen at 50 percent operational capacity for areas placed under GCQ (general community quarantine) and 100 percent capacity for areas under modified GCQ, subject to minimum public health standards and protocols.”/PN
