Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 3) — Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III on Thursday called on the pandemic response task force and the Health Department to scrap the policy requiring fully vaccinated travelers to complete the 14-day quarantine upon arrival, warning that it could discourage business investors.
“It doesn’t make sense! (It) defeats the purpose of vaccinating so we can open the economy. Vaccinated investors won’t come because they have to quarantine or even Filipinos who are vaccinated are having second thoughts,” Sotto said in a statement.
The Senate leader said the mandatory quarantine policy can be cancelled as long as health standards are followed.
The government is implementing the requirement to all inbound travelers whether they are fully vaccinated or not. The passengers need to head straight to a quarantine facility and get tested on the 7th day. If they yield a negative test result, they can be turned over on the 10th day to their destination’s local government where they will complete the 14-day isolation.
Despite this appeal from Sotto and some overseas Filipinos planning to return to the country, the government stands by its guidelines, saying getting a vaccine isn’t a guarantee that a person can no longer be infected with COVID-19 or infect others.
Transportation Undersecretary Raul del Rosario, however, did not discount the possibility of revising the policy. He said experts and officials at the IATF have been carefully discussing for weeks the possible changes.
“Siyempre baka magkamali tayo ng protocol diyan eh lalong mag-spread (ang virus),” he said on Wednesday.
[Translation: Of course, we may issue the wrong protocols that could lead to the spread of the virus.]
More facilities needed
Del Rosario also admitted they’re facing challenges on housing returning overseas Filipinos. Hotels in Metro Manila that are being used as quarantine facilities are now 90% to 95% occupied even after the government set a quota on daily arrivals to 2,000.
He said government is now looking for more hotels outside of Metro Manila, like Cavite and Batangas. Authorities have also put up a centralized command center to monitor hotel occupancies daily.
CNN Philippines correspondents Eimor Santos and Rex Remitio contributed to this story.
