Exit tickets

VERY few people know that the Bureau of Immigration requires foreigners who arrive in the Philippines to possess exit tickets. They are also called out-bound tickets or onward tickets. They are actually plane tickets that foreigners must have to be allowed entry into the Philippines.

By way of example, if an American tourist arrives at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila on a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong, that American must have a plane ticket going out of the Philippines to any country like Hong Kong or Thailand or wherever. Otherwise, that American tourist will not be allowed entry into the Philippines and he has to take the first plane out on what is called an “Exclusion Order” issued by the immigration officer at the immigration arrival counter.

I am writing about this rule because it runs counter to our government’s effort to lure more tourists into the country. It is so ironic that what we spend in millions of pesos by our tourism department each year is countermanded or reversed by angry tourists who do not know of this domestic rule, and are refused entry upon arrival.

This outdated imposition by our Bureau of Immigration cannot be blamed on the present administration of the immigration bureau. It is an old, old rule. Remember, that our immigration law is called “The Immigration Act of 1940.” It is a law that was enacted before World War II. It is that old.

Although the Exit Ticket rule is not in the immigration law, it has been imposed since time immemorial by the immigration bureau.
What complicates the rule is that the airlines are fined something to the tune of P50 thousand for each foreigner-passenger who arrives and presents himself at the Immigration Arrival counter and applies for admission into the Philippines but without an Exit Ticket. That passenger can be classified as an improperly documented passenger and the airline which flew him into the country is fined hugely.

So what does the airline do? Upon boarding at the airport in Hong Kong, for instance, or at the Bangkok airport in Thailand, the airline would not accept the passenger for boarding on his flight to the Philippines if he does not have an Exit Ticket. That passenger will then be adviced to go to a nearby counter of the airline to “buy” an exit ticket for about US$500. That’s about P22 thousand.

As my experience would tell, that ticket would be useless if upon arrival in the Philippines, the American tourist will be allowed an original stay of 21 days which is extendible for another one year or even three years. Certainly, that exit ticket can be valid only for a few months, like eight months from date of purchase. So, if the American chooses to stay longer like 18 months or more in the Philippines, that exit ticket will expire and cannot be used anymore.

And this is where the racket begins. When the American tourist approaches the airline counter in Bangkok, as in our example above, that airline desk clerk understands that the passenger will not use the exit ticket in the next eight months and will just use it for compliance with immigration requirements. Thus, the airline clerk would just issue a temporary ticket, or a semblance of a regular plane ticket, which is already known to the immigration official at the arrival counter in Manila, and the airline clerk would just keep the money for the “organization” of airline and immigration officers.

If there are 100 passengers in a day who would purchase exit tickets under similar circumstances, that is P220 thousand! Or P2.2 million in 10 days. Or P6.6 million in one month. That is the supposed money-making side of this rule which the ranking immigration officials should be aware about.

But the real damage to our tourism industry is the angry passenger, the rejected tourist, the deported alien, who knows not of this odd and antiquated rule.That tourist who would be spending hundreds of thousands of pesos here on hotels, food, taxi fares, laundry, and a long list of services he pays for during his stay would be sent back to his airport of origin just because he refuses or fails to pay for an Exit Ticket.

Indeed, this rule should be abrogated and nullified as soon as possible.

It would be more advantageous if the foreigner would buy his exit ticket in some travel agency in Cagayan de Oro City or anywhere else in the Philippines for then the service fees and the taxes will all be paid here. By doing away with the Exit Ticket requirement, the tourist would not even think of going home in the next three years, and he will spend more dollars here. That would certainly be the final objective of our tourism department.

The theory of requiring tourists to possess exit tickets upon arrival in the Philippines was essentially to ensure that the foreigner will be able to leave the Philippines when his allowed stay ends. But in this new world of the Internet, tickets can even be booked online and paid with credit cards at the travel agencies in the Philippines.

Thus, there is no more danger or risk that the tourist becomes a “public charge” or a liability of the Philippine government if he does not have any money to leave the country.

So the next time that any one of our local government officials or our congressmen or any concerned person have a chance to talk to the highanking immigration officials in Manila, or even our tourism officers locally or in the national level, they should convince the immigration bureau to cancel this Exit Ticket requirement.Only then will our tourism industry get a real boost from a truly responsive rule.

E-mail: joepallugna@yahoo.com