PAL proposes ‘no facility quarantine’ protocol for vaccinated passengers from North America

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines, Inc. (PAL) is proposing to pilot test a "no facility quarantine protocol" for vaccinated passengers from North America to ease travel requirements for Filipinos returning home.

"Philippine Airlines - working with Presidential Adviser Joey Concepcion and OCTA research group - has proposed to pilot test a ‘no facility quarantine protocol’ for North American vaccinated passengers arriving in the Philippines and for Filipinos fully vaccinated in the Philippines who traveled to North America and are returning to the country,” PAL chief strategy and planning officer Dexter Lee said in a statement.

“Our suggestions have received positive feedback and are now with the IATF Technical Working Group for further deliberation. We are grateful for the full support of stakeholders —DOTr (Department of Transportation), DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs), DOH (Department of Health) and other government agencies. Any official announcement will emanate from the IATF. Let us await their feedback,” Lee said.

In a separate statement, Go Negosyo founder and Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion said he organized a meeting with official from PAL and other local airlines together with Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez, and experts Prof. Ranjit Rye and Fr. Nick Austriaco from OCTA Research.

During the meeting, the presidential adviser said several solutions were put forward to address the difficulty faced by arriving international passengers, specifically those coming from North America.

Among the solutions are the frontloading of the testing process before passengers arrive in the country and expanding international gateways to ease the load off the NAIA terminals.

In a presentation by OCTA Research fellow Fr. Austriaco, data show that new infections in the Philippines cannot be attributed to international arrivals.

According to Fr. Austriaco, homegrown transmissions account for almost all of the new COVID-19 cases in the country today, with arriving international passengers accounting for only 1.8 cases of the average 6,000 new cases at this time.

This coincides with data by PAL, which has been tracking positivity rates among its inbound international passengers.

PAL’s tracking observed that positivity rates among inbound passengers from North America have been relatively low, and that 90% of their North America passengers are vaccinated.

With this, Concepcion said, “I think it is important that we try to bring our Balikbayans home because many are desperate to see their families. They want to be reunited with their parents. NCR’s vaccination rate is almost 80% and in terms of reciprocity, the US has been very welcoming to the Philippines, allowing only a negative RT PCR test and proof of vaccination status as travel requirements. We need to extend the same privilege to America.”

For his part, Romualdez said the Philippine Embassy in the US is receiving inquiries from a lot of Filipinos, Filipino-Americans, and even American businessmen on when they will be allowed into the country with less restrictions.

“The embassy and all of its consulates are willing to support the documentation and authentication of vaccination records for arriving passengers,” the ambassador said.

Locsin, meanwhile, agreed that frontloading the testing process can help in easing the long lines now being experienced by arriving passengers.

“Sometimes we don’t necessarily need to move forward but we need to take a sidestep instead. We can consider the compelling reason mentioned which is ‘reciprocity.’ We would also like to get support from the business community in the efforts. We need them to recover,” the Foreign Affairs chief said.

Tugade, likewise, said that he is open to adding more gateways for international passengers, such as Clark, Cebu, Laoag, Bicol, and Zamboanga, to address the bottlenecks now being experienced at the NAIA terminals.

“I have been going around the terminals and airports to personally ensure that passengers will have a comfortable experience when they arrive. We don’t want our passengers to experience any inconvenience as much as possible,” the Transportation chief said.

Concepcion said that easing the process for returning Filipinos would redound to benefits down the line for many micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), majority of which are counting on the downstream income that would be generated by increased inbound international traffic.

“We have held their hand during the pandemic and now we must try and help them enter 2022 with hope,” he said.—AOL, GMA News