DFA won’t scrap FTF for Chinese visa applicants

Continued from A18

Manalo’s letter was in response to Frasco’s earlier correspondence appealing to DFA to speed up the processing of visa appplications from China. The Department of Tourism (DOT) is banking on this market to boost inbound arrivals to reach its target of 4.8-million international travelers this year. (See, “DOT press DFA on ways to lure Chinese tourists,” in the BusinessMirror, July 12, 2023)

Over the years, lawmakers have issued concerns on the large number of Chinese retirees in the Philippines, approved by the DOT’s attached agency, the Philippine Retirement Authority. They have also raised issues on the alleged illegal work of Chinese citizens in Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations.

No daily quota

MANALO also tried to disabuse Frasco of her belief that DFA’s posts in China limit the number of visas issued to Chinese applicants at 100 daily. “In fact, the quota numbers have been removed immediately from official websites....

[They] adhere to daily capacity limits, not quotas, through an appointment system (online or manual) to manage individual applications and the capacity of Posts to proces and issue visas.”

He committed the posts in China to try to process 50-250 individual visa applications daily, but the Shanghai consular office “will continue to post the remaining number of slots daily for individual applications as an effective means to manage the great number of CH applications.” Applications from Chi- nese tour groups via accredited travel agents are processed by the consular offices “without a cap.”

Meanwhile, the DFA has approved and endorsed 83 DOT-accredited/endorsed Philippines-China tour operators’ documents to PFSPs in China, and is currently processing one DOTaccredited/endorsed tour operator’s documents for DFA endorsement.

DFA-OCA returned 19 DOT-accredited tour operators’ documents to the Philippine counterpart tour operators “due to problems in the documents.”

Expeditious approval

MANALO underscored that DFA has “an excellent record of expeditiously approving the accreditation of CH tour groups endorsed by DOT to DFA

That should have a follow-up, right? Hopefully [apprehending the smugglers and hoarders] will help the supply and the prices,” the senator said.

C ayetano nonetheless acknowledged Marcos’s “sense of urgency” about the matter, which he said has been in the minds of many Filipinos.

A n alliance of farm groups has urged the Marcos administration to actually put smugglers and hoarders of agricultural products behind bars.

“ These smugglers and hoarders need to actually be brought to justice this year because they are the main reasons why the prices of agricultural products are high,” Jayson Cainglet, executive director of Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag) said.

He lamented that to this day, none of the supposed smugglers and hoarders has been found guilty.

E vidence presented by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) during congressional hearings were often deemed insufficient, thus halting further investigations, Cainglet said. None have proceeded beyond the preliminary investigations. All [of the cases] have been dismissed,” he said.

Nevertheless, the group has welcomed the proposed amendments to the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act that lawmakers claimed would help the President’s drive against “unfair practices that hurt consumers and local farmers alike.”

For his part, Sinag President Rosendo So said that it will be beneficial for farmers if Marcos keeps his post as the Department of Agriculture (DA) secretary. K eeping his post as the DA chief will make Marcos closer to the farmers, So said.

It is more effective if the President becomes the secretary of agriculture; they can reach him and tell him what the problem is and he will understand.... We see less corruption if he will be the head of agriculture,” he said. With Raadee S. Sausa increasingly rough seas.

More than 11,000 inter-island ferry passengers and cargo truck drivers, along with 100 passenger and cargo vessels and motor bancas, were stranded in several ports where a no-sail order was imposed due to the typhoon and enhanced monsoon rains, the Philippine Coast Guard said.

I n Taiwan, part of the annual Han Kuang military exercises were canceled Tuesday.

A n exercise meant to simulate the use of a civilian airport in case of bombed-out military runways was canceled as it was located on the southeastern coast of Taiwan, where waves were already rising. At Taiwan’s southernmost point, waves had already risen to as much as 2.5 meters, or 8 feet, according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau.

T he Han Kuang exercises are the largest annual exercises aimed at displaying the Taiwan military’s defense capabilities in case of an attack from China, which claims the self-ruled territory as its own. Landbased exercises for the Han Kuang drills are still ongoing in other parts of Taiwan. AP as long as the documents are complete and found to be in order.”

T he Philippines attracted 3 million international tourists from January 1 to July 19, with China accounting for 129,077. China, which used to be the second top source market for tourists in the Philippines prior to the pandemic, reopened its borders to outbound travel only in January. (See, “South Koreans ‘living PHL help boost tourist arrivals to 3 million,” in the B usiness M irror , July 20, 2023.)

The Philippines and mainland China have had an uneasy relationship following the latter’s continued failure to recognize an international court’s decision in 2016 to recognize the Philippines’ rights in the West Philippine Sea. Ma.

Stella F. Arnaldo