by Miriam G. Desacada
Tacloban City–House Minority Leader and 4Ps party-list Representative Marcelino “Nonoy” Libanan Jr. wants the government to implement programs that will encourage many overseas Filipinos to visit and spend their holidays in the Philippines instead.
“We want the Tourism Promotions Board to draw up a new marketing plan that will purposely entice overseas Filipinos to come and visit their motherland,” said Libanan, adding that their spending here can increase tourism revenues and generate more tourism jobs.
Compared with other foreign nationals, Filipinos who became permanent residents or citizens of other countries will most probably spend more money during their vacations here, “due to their strong social and economic ties” with their relatives here, said the congressman from Eastern Samar.
“Many overseas Filipinos spend for the improvement of their ancestral homes here in the Philippines when they come for a visit, while others set up new investments, such as apartments for rent, to provide a recurring income stream to their relatives here,” Libanan said.
“They are also likely to purchase locally-made products for them to bring when they fly back to their adopted country,” Libanan added.
Libanan, a former Immigration commissioner during the Arroyo administration, has been batting for the passage of a bill that would upgrade the benefits and privileges enjoyed by returning Filipinos under the Balikbayan Program Law of 1989.
Balikbayan is defined as a Filipino citizen who have been out of the country for at least a year, and to former Filipino citizens and their family members who have been naturalized in a foreign country but return to the Philippines.
Under House Bill 6472, which he authored, the aggregate tax-exempt purchase that returning Filipinos and other balikbayans may make at DOT-run duty-free shops will be increased to $6,000.
At present, balikbayans are entitled only to make up to $3,500 in tax-exempt purchases at DOT duty-free shops, including up to $1,500 worth of discretionary consumer goods.
Libanan is also the author of the Dual Citizenship Law of 2003, or Republic Act No. 9225, which enables natural-born Filipinos—who became naturalized citizens of another country—to retain or reacquire their Philippine citizenship.
They can do so by taking an oath of allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines before a Philippine consular officer. Then, after reacquiring their Philippine citizenship, they will enjoy full civil, economic, and political rights as Filipinos.
According to the Department of Tourism (DOT), a total of 396,147 permanent residents abroad but are Philippine passport holders, had visited the country from January to November this year.
Last year (2022), a total of 628,445 permanent residents abroad but are Philippine passport holders visited the country, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic started to drop, while global air travel restrictions were lifted.
Meanwhile, the DOT does not have figures on the number of Filipinos or former Filipinos who visited the Philippines but using foreign passports. —-Miriam G. Desacada