LAGUNA, Philippines —The National Task Force (NTF) made an action to suspend all incoming international flights for one week. This serves as a move to help mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The government has suspended all inbound flights at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila and other international airports. This action has resulted in the frustration and anger of overseas Filipinos who are affected by the suspension.
Eric Apolonio, spokesperson of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) made it clear that “only inbound flights” are covered by the week-long suspension. This clarified the statement issued earlier Sunday stating that a Notice to Airmen was issued “suspending all domestic and international passenger/commercial flights to and from the Philippines for one week starting on 3 May at 8 a.m.”
The CAAP said that those international flights wishing to land or depart must request an exemption with CAAP Operations Center (OPCEN) at least 36 hours before the scheduled departure from the airport of origin.
Flights such as cargo flights, sweeper flights, medical flights, maintenance flights, and utility flights are exempted from the suspension.
Meanwhile, the NTF chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jrs stated that “this decision is meant to decongest our quarantine facilities to protect our people by preventing the further spread of COVID-19 and also ensure that our overseas Filipino workers are well taken care of when they arrive from abroad,” in his statement last Sunday.
Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. established the request on Saturday to Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade through a letter. He also stated “the need to ramp up the capacity of our current systems to properly process the growing number of Filipino repatriates coming back to the Philippines on a daily basis.”
The temporary prohibition of international flights will “allow the government’s frontline agencies and instrumentalities to upgrade their testing and screening protocols, and expand existing quarantine and medical facilities to adequately deal with the growing number of repatriates and COVID-19 cases in the Philippines,” he furthermore added.
The measure would be lifted after a week according to Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana of National Defense of the Philippines. This would allow the testing of some 6,000 repatriated Filipino migrant workers for the new strain of coronavirus.
“Ang timeline natin 7 days tapos na ito. After 7 days, ili-lift na natin iyong suspension sa airport,” Lorenzana added in an interview with DZMM.
The moratorium of international flights commenced at 8:00 am yesterday and is expected to last for a week.
Nine international airports in the country are covered by the NOTAM on the suspension of inbound international flights, including Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), Davao International Airport, Clark International Airport, Iloilo International Airport, Mactan-Cebu International Airport, Zamboanga International Airport, Kalibo International Airport, Laoag International Airport and Puerto Princesa International Airport.
Meanwhile, this move has sent a mass of angry and frustrated OFW workers affected by the suspension.
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) made it clear in a statement that “the move is deemed necessary to ensure that our country will not experience a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic due to the increasing number of international passenger arrivals. It should be noted that most of our repatriated citizens are coming from countries that experienced significant COVID-19 outbreak.”
Sources: Inquirer.Net and ABS-CBN News