More tourists extend visas

More foreign tourists  extended their stay in the country last year, the Bureau of Immigration reported.

Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said 223, 453 tourists have extended their visas last year,  13 percent higher than the number of visa extensions granted by the BI in 2006.

“This figure proves that the government is succeeding in its efforts to attract foreign visitors who come here either for business or pleasure,” he said.

“It only shows that foreign tourists are really attracted by the beauty of our country and its people since they want to stay longer here.”

Libanan said the BI collected P556.6 million from visa extension fees last year.

This amount was one-third of last year’s P1.7 billion total collection of the bureau, he added.  

The bureau’s revenue from visa extension fees in 2007 was higher by P88 million or 19 percent, as compared to the P468-million the previous year, he said.

Meanwhile, Libanan said more foreigners are coming to the Philippines to work.

He said some 11,290 foreigners have been issued with pre-arranged employment visas in 2007, 100-percent higher than the previous year.

“This also shows that we have been successful in persuading foreign workers to secure the proper working permits and visas before they could engage in gainful activity in our country,” he said.

Most of those issued working visas were foreign executives employed by the top 1,000 corporations and Philippine-based multinational companies, he added.

Bureau spokesman Floro Balato, Jr. said records showed that close to 4,000 of these 11,290 foreigners were newly-arrived executives, while the rest have renewed their existing working visas.

Unlike before when the number of approved working visas averaged only 400 every month, the BI Board of Commissioners now approves an average of 900 working visa applications a month, he added. - Edu Punay