Inbound international travelers no longer need vax

A NEW, updated vaccine certificate guidelines for inbound and outbound travelers has been released by the Department of Health (DOH)

According to the new guidelines, vaccination status and vaccination certificates for COVID-19 are no longer required for international arrivals.

“All arriving international travelers are accepted regardless of their vaccination status,” the DOH said in a news release.

The DOH is urging departing international travelers to check on the vaccine certificate requirements of the country of their destination.

The DOH further said for overseas Filipino workers and seafarers, the issuance of the International Certificate of Vaccination for Prophylaxis for Yellow Fever Vaccine and other vaccinations

Certi Cates

depends on the requirement of their agency or company.

The DOH meanwhile said bivalent COVID vaccines can now be used as initial boosters.

DOH Undersecretary Enrique Tayag in an ABS-CBN News report said bivalent vaccines could now be administered as a first or second booster, apart from being used as a third booster for priority sectors.

Tayag, quoted by ABS-CBN News, said, “what we did to speed up the vaccination, at first, it was only for frontline health workers. Now all health workers can avail of it. Number 2, all seniors. Third, the immunocompromised. Then at first, it was just for the third booster. Now, if you don’t have the first and second booster, you can use the bivalent COVID vaccine.”

Gabriellea Pariño

DFA declares level 3 alert in Libya, voluntary repatriation for Filipinos

By Rey E. Requejo

THE Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Wednesday imposed a level 3 crisis alert, which means voluntary repatriation for Filipinos in Libya, updating the previous alert levels implemented in some parts of the African nation. In 2019, the Libyan capital of Tripoli had been placed under alert level 4 or mandatory repatriation; while areas within its 100-kilometer radius were under alert level 2 or restricted phase.

The new alert level status was prompted by the “significant improvements” in Libya since four years ago, although the political and security conditions in Libya remain fragile.

“It is noted that Libya, despite the political divide between the east and the west, is currently not under a full-blown external attack from both sides,” the DFA said.

“Conflicts in Libya, since 2019, are localized, sporadic, and targeted at combatants, which are not features of a large-scale civil conflict, but rather of low-intensity conflicts,” it added.

Currently, there are 2,300 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Libya, who “perceive the country as safe and secure,” the DFA said.

“This perception of safety is grounded on the fact that most of the OFWs remaining in Libya are veterans of conflict, having survived the civil wars of 2011 and 2014-2020, and the fight with the Daesh that accompanied the civil wars, and have thus adapted to the instability in the country,” it added.

The DFA noted that the most pressing concerns for OFWs in Libya involved pending the labor issues.

IT IS as if our senators and other high government officials never pass Roxas Boulevard.

The GSIS Building where the Senate currently rents its office spaces and session hall is right smack in front of the once beautiful bay.

The senators, I would suppose, go to Sofitel nearby every now and then. And so do their highly paid staff.

But not until the embassy of the mighty US of A complained about the many reclamation projects in the bay did our leaders find their voice, and asked the DENR and other government agencies to look into the environmental impact of such side-byside projects which haul sand from Cavite, Zambales and elsewhere and dump these into the bay.

An exception is Senator Cynthia Villar, who has been vocal about reclamation projects in her native Las Pinas for years.

But till the US Embassy spoke out, it’s been a case of “not in my backyard” (NIMBY).

Even the president has rued while in Malolos that “The sea has disappeared from Roxas Boulevard.”

Very few except Pamalakaya and environmentalists like Antonio Oposa and scientist Kevin Rodolfo kept criticizing the reclamation that would forever steal the Manila Bay sunset from ordinary folks and likely cause severe floods in the mainland.