EO eases foreign visits to Subic
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) welcomed a Malacañang issuance that effectively relaxed the admission and stay of foreign nationals who enter the Subic Bay Freeport Zone as temporary visitors through its seaports.
SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said that Executive Order No. 72 signed by President Rodrigo Duterte on December 18 had included Subic’s piers and wharves as points of entry for businessmen and tourists who could stay in the zone without visa for a maximum period of 14 days.
“This is definitely a game-changer for Subic, as well as Region 3 because it would facilitate the arrival of more cruise ships in Subic and boost the economy of the whole Central Luzon region,” Eisma enthused during a media event here on Thursday.
“This arrangement is less complicated, and thus we foresee that the resulting ease of travel would make Subic Bay even more popular as a cruise ship destination,” she added.
EO 72 amended EO 271, which was signed by President Ramos in 1995 to provide for the uncomplicated access of foreign nationals to specified areas in the Subic Special Economic and Freeport Zone through the Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA).
The new EO noted that piers and wharves in Subic Bay “have emerged as new destinations for international cruise ships, as shown by the number of cruise ship arrivals in 2018” and that it was “anticipated that there will be a continued increase in cruise ship arrivals in Subic Bay in 2019 and onwards.”
Because of this, there was a need for an amendment “to allow foreign nationals granted the visa-free privilege under the said EO to depart from the Subic Bay piers and wharves, besides the SBIA,” the EO also indicated.
Eisma said that under the new EO, foreign nationals arriving through cruise ships can simply present marine vessel tickets, along with their passports, in order to be eligible for a 14-day visa-free stay in the zone.
She added with the no-visa privilege extended to Subic seaports, the SBMA expects the local tourism industry to flourish under a program of complementation among local tourism sites.
“The SBMA had long lobbied for this amendment in order to allow cruise ship passengers to extend their usual one-day tours in Subic and other tourism attractions in Central Luzon,” Eisma said.
“With Subic as anchor destination, tourism could further penetrate into neighboring areas in
Central Luzon,” she also said.
