MANILA - The Philippines will start accepting fully vaccinated foreign leisure travelers from countries whose nationals can enter the country visa-free.

The announcement was made after Presidential Spokesperson and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said the country would drop facility-based quarantine for fully-vaccinated international travelers and returning OFWs.

In a statement, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said the decision of the the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) would only cover tourists from countries whose nationals are allowed visa-free entry to the Philippines.

Eligible leisure travelers will not be required to undergo quarantine as long as they will be able to present a negative RT-PCR test taken 48 hours before arrival, the statement said.

Qualified tourists should show passports that are valid for at least 6 months, outbound tickets to their country of origin or next destination, and proof of vaccination recognized by the IATF, the DOT said.

LIST OF ACCEPTED PROOF OF VACCINATION:

• Certificates issued by the World Health Organization (WHO)
• VaxCertPH of the Department of Health (available at https://vaxcert.doh.gov.ph)
• A national/ state digital certificate of a foreign government which has accepted VaxCertPH under a reciprocal arrangement unless otherwise permitted by the IATF

"We at the DOT are very thankful to our partners in the IATF-EID for approving our proposal to allow the entry of foreign leisure travelers," Puyat said.

"The Department sees this as a welcome development that will contribute significantly to job restoration, primarily in tourism-dependent communities, and in the reopening of businesses that have earlier shut down during the pandemic,’’ she added.

The move will help the country keep up with its peers which have already initiated measures to reopen to foreign tourists, the DOT said.

The full list of countries with visa-free entry to the Philippines are found in the Department of Foreign Affairs' database.

Entry of tourists from green list countries was suspended in December due to the emergence of the new omicron variant.

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