The Bureau of Immigration (BI) reported a significant drop in the number of inbound and outbound passengers —including overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and foreigners — during the first nine months of the year,
BI commissioner Jaime Morente said a total of 1.1 million travelers left the country from January to September this year, compared to the 3.6 million who departed during the same period last year.
“The bulk of these travelers were overseas Filipino workers as well as foreigners who were returning to their home countries,” Morente said in a statement.
Morente likewise reported a 72 percent drop in the number of passengers who arrived in the Philippines from abroad during the first nine months of the year as the country continues to grapple with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The immigration commissioner said that only a total of 893,886 international travelers arrived from January to September this year. This is way lower than the 3.2 million passengers that arrived during the same period in 2020.
“This is a far cry from our pre-pandemic figures, wherein we reached 12.6 million arrivals already by the 3rd quarter,” Morente said in a statement.
Morente explained that although the pandemic started in 2020, it was in late March that the country closed its borders, so there were already 2.8 million arrivals recorded at the beginning of the year.
“Statistics show that since January the volume of arrivals in our international ports has been averaging at only around 90,000 to 100,000 a month so we foresee this trend to persist until the end of this year,” Morente said.
Morente attributed the low number of passenger arrivals to the daily cap on passenger arrivals as well as the imposed travel restrictions.
