Filipinos, Americans top overseas arrivals in December – BI

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said that Filipinos and Americans topped the list of international arrivals in December, just in time for the holidays.

Data from the BI showed that 141,216 Filipinos arrived during the holiday season, followed by Americans with 12,455 arrivals, Canadians with 2,805 and Japanese with 1,645.

The Department of Health reported on Monday that the fourth case of the Omicron COVID-19 variant in the country was a 38-year-old female from the United States who arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on December 10.

This traveler’s husband also tested positive for COVID-19, and his sample will be subjected to genome sequencing.

BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said that most of the Filipino arrivals were overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who wanted to spend the yuletide season in the country.

“This is expected since many of our kababayans who are now living abroad wish to spend the holidays here with their families,” he added.

BI port operations division chief Carlos Capulong noted that the arrivals on December 24 and 25 had “doubled” compared to last year’s figures.

“Last year, there were only 5,478 arrivals for the two days, while this year, it increased 100% to 11,074 for the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day,” he said.

“While the numbers are still relatively low, we are confident that this increase will continue until next year, given the government’s aggressive vaccination campaign,” he added.

Departures

Meanwhile, a total of 145,900 passengers left the country this December.

“The number of international travelers remain low despite the holiday season,” said Morente. “By the end of the year, we’re expecting the numbers to rise a little, perhaps around 20,000 to 50,000 more passengers, but we’re still not seeing pre-pandemic figures."

Filipinos topped the list of departures this month with 117,795 exits, followed by Americans with 7,776, Indians with 2,908, Chinese with 2,509, and the Japanese with 2,190.

During Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the BI said they processed around 7,000 departing travelers, nearly double the 2020 figure of 3,854.

“The usual busy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day still had a low number of travelers,” said Morente.  “But we’re happy to be seeing better figures than last year."

The BI earlier announced that balikbayans may now pass through the electronic gates (e-gates) installed at the arrival areas for faster immigration processing as they had anticipated an influx of Filipinos arriving for the Christmas season.

The e-gates, which are found in all three NAIA terminals and the Clark International Airport, would cut the processing time for passengers from 45 seconds to as low as eight seconds.

Capulong thanked the immigration officers who were on duty during the holidays to provide service for incoming and outgoing passengers. — VBL, GMA News