6/15/2008 [ tribune.net.ph ]
The Pre-arranged Visa Upon Arrival (PVUA) program is a strategy to bring into the country more tourists and investors.
Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Marcelino Libanan yesterday said PVUA is one of the strategies put in place by the BI to make it easy for tourists and investors to come to the country, explaining this step is in support to President Arroyo’s order to make the country friendly to foreign investors.
At a media forum at the Ambassador Hotel in Manila recently, Libanan said the other effect of the PVUA program is it has curbed human smuggling.
“PVUA is one of the BI’s answers to President Arroyo’s policy of liberalizing the entry of tourists and investors from countries like China and India,” Libanan said.
He added under the PVUA, reputable organizations like foreign chambers of commerce in the Philippines vouch for the good character of visiting foreign nationals.
“The sponsoring organizations would be the ones to be in charge of the visiting foreigners in case he would have to leave so this process curbs human smuggling instead of providing a loophole for this illegal activity as purported by crime syndicates,” Libanan said.
He added entry visas granted through PVUA are “pre-arranged” from the countries of origin of visiting foreigners, a process which has been in place since 2002 for visiting Chinese.
This allows Philippine authorities to gain information on the characters and profiles of visiting foreigners instead of being in the dark in tracking down foreigners smuggled into the country by human smuggling syndicates while at the same time facilitating the granting of visas to legitimate investors and tourists.
Foreigners smuggled into the country are prone to monthly extortion by crime syndicates engaged in human smuggling, Libanan said.
BI recently discovered a discrepancy of 4,843 between the number of entry visas issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs and the actual arrival of visa holders between June 2005 and June 2007.
The discrepancy amounts to an estimated P43 million in foregone revenues from visa fees for the government.
Libanan said PVUA eliminates human smuggling activities, aside from promoting the investment promotions of the Department of Trade and Industry and the tourism programs of the Department of Tourism. Conrado Ching
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