{"id":225270,"date":"2019-07-31T21:34:18","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T01:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=225270"},"modified":"2019-07-31T21:34:18","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T01:34:18","slug":"dfa-chief-wants-visa-on-arrival-privilege-for-foreigners-removed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/07\/31\/dfa-chief-wants-visa-on-arrival-privilege-for-foreigners-removed\/","title":{"rendered":"DFA chief wants visa-on-arrival privilege for foreigners removed"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">We need to put an end to visas upon arrival; all visas should be issued by consular offices after vetting. We must take extra care in outsourcing any part of the visa application process, picking only the most reputable worldwide. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nsiUfNHiSE\">https:\/\/t.co\/nsiUfNHiSE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/teddyboylocsin\/status\/1156425875404890112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 31, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<strong>MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0&#8212; Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Wednesday recommended the removal of visa upon arrival privilege for foreigners.<\/p>\n<p>Locsin\u2019s proposal came following the remarks of National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. that the influx of undocumented foreigners to Manila pose a possible security threat to the country.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We need to put an end to visas upon arrival; all visas should be issued by consular offices after vetting,&#8221; Locsin said on his official Twitter account, in reaction to the headline carrying Esperon&#8217;s remarks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We must take extra care in outsourcing any part of the visa application process, picking only the most reputable worldwide,&#8221; Locsin added.<\/p>\n<p>In an earlier news forum, Esperon said he remains on the &#8220;cautious side&#8221; when looking at the issue of the volume of foreigners in the country, particularly when they are undocumented and when their intent is not clear.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;On the matter of Chinese coming in, are we surprised about that? Of course,&#8221; Esperon said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s really happening is that there are businesses, offshore gaming, coming in to the Philippines&#8211; these are regulated by the PAGCOR (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation). But there are illegal players, illegal operators, that&#8217;s our problem, because some of these Chinese could come in as tourists and they could end up for the period that they are allowed here to be workers,&#8221; he added in Filipino.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, he dismissed as &#8220;wild imagination&#8221; the speculation that Chinese nationals coming in are part of the Chinese army.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We need to put an end to visas upon arrival; all visas should be issued by consular offices after vetting. &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":200480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-joyce-ann-l-rocamora","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225270"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225283,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225270\/revisions\/225283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}