MANILA – The Philippine is determined to pursue its proposal for members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to adopt a common visa in a bid to boost investments, particularly in tourism, the head of the Bureau of Immigration disclosed.
Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said he already introduced the proposal for plenary approval by his Asean counterparts during their recent three-day conference which the Philippine hosted .
“The common Asean visa is comparable to the the Schengen visa being granted by European countries in which the holders can travel within the so-called European Schengen states,†Libanan said.
He pointed out that nationals of the 10-member Asean now enjoy a visa-free entry into any of the member-countries for as long as two weeks.
Asean is composed of the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar (Burma).
Under the proposal, Libanan said foreigners holding an Asean common visa can travel freely to any of its members without the need to secure an entry visa.
Libanan likened this to a multi-country swing where foreigners can roam freely within the Asean region in line with the “One-Asean Community†by 2015 as envisioned by its charter.
However, reliable sources disclosed that some Asean members, while welcoming the proposal, also expressed reservations about its implementation.
The Myanmar delegate, for instance, frankly told his colleagues that his government would seriously study the matter before deciding on whether or not to agree to its adoption, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The sources pointed out that Myanmar is under fire not only from its fellow Asean members but also throughout the world for its alleged rampant human rights violations, particularly in the continued detention of its global democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyii.
The military-backed Myanmar government continues to ignore international appeals from world powers, led by the United States, to relax its rules and allow foreign missions to enter the country and investigate the alleged human rights violations, the sources pointed out.
Nevertheless, Libanan stressed the adoption of the Philippine proposal would bring huge benefits to the member countries, especially in trade, investments and tourism.
During the meeting, an immigration bureau spokesman revealed that Libanan was elected to head the Asean Directorate-General of Immigration Departments and Heads of Consular Divisions of Ministries of Foreign Affairs (DGICM).
Also attending the annual conference, the spokesman said, were officials of the Australian immigration and citizenship office.
He said the DGICM was established when the Asean adopted the Asean Declaration on Transnational Crime in December 1997. As the declaration implies, he said it is aimed mainly as a regional tool to combat transnational crimes which have emerged as a major problem not only in the region but throughout the world.
According to the spokesman, the delegates also focused on major issues confronting the Asean, particularly lost passports and the “irregular people movement†in the member countries.
He said real time sharing of information on lost or stolen Asean passports would add more teeth to the global campaign against the proliferation of fraudulent travel documents.
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