Itching to travel overseas and conquer your wanderlust? Too bad, because the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said yesterday that Filipinos are still barred from travelling overseas due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The BI made the reminder yesterday after its officials caught six Filipinos who were about to take a chartered flight bound for Cambodia at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). The six reportedly said that they were going to Phnom Penh to attend a business meeting about shrimp farming.
Couldn’t they do that on Zoom instead?
As a consequence, immigration employees offloaded the group because the purpose of their travel wasn’t really considered essential and the bureau concluded that the group were actually just planning to do some R&R.
“We want to emphasize and reiterate that Filipinos are still prohibited from leaving the country unless they are Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), holders of study visas or permanent residents in the country of their destination,” BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said.
Port Operations Acting Chief Grifton Medina assured Filipinos that the restrictions are only temporary.
“We should always bear in mind that the government implemented these measures to protect our countrymen against this deadly coronavirus,” he said.
In the mood for some shrimp farming? Time to cancel your flights, folks.
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