Palacios supports inclusion of PH to Guam/CNMI visa waiver program
Gov. Arnold I. Palacios says his administration supports the Philippine House of Representatives’ recent efforts to include the Philippines in the list of countries that are part of the Guam/CNMI visa waiver program.
In a comment from Palacios, he enthusiastically shared his support for the Philippine House of Representatives’ recently passed house resolution that would request the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs to ask U.S President Joseph Biden to authorize the country’s inclusion to the Guam/CNMI visa waiver program.
“We certainly support the resolution. It’s a Guam and CNMI effort. There’s a lot of people from the Philippines, Filipino citizens and even U.S citizens that live in the Philippines, who may want to go on a getaway for a few days. We hope we can work it out with the United States government and provide a visa-free arrangement [to Guam and the CNMI] for Philippine nationals,” he said.
Palacios has expressed multiple times before the CNMI’s need to diversify its tourism industry by enticing new markets to visit the islands.
In a previous statement from the Hotel Association of the NMI, it shares that through the possible inclusion of Philippines to Guam/CNMI visa waiver program, there is a possibility of further diversifying the CNMI’s tourism industry while possibly bringing in over 400,000 new visitors.
“We support this as it brings in additional tourists and helps with the recovery of the tourism industry of NMI. The population of the Philippines is 115.6 million (in 2022), and according to data from FIES (PSA 2015) that 1.4% of them are high-income and 40% (approximately 2 in every 5 people) of Filipinos belong to the middle-income class. Assuming that only 1 % of the 40% middle-income class population can afford to travel to NMI, that would equate to 460,000 people. In 2017, a total of 653,150 tourists arrived in the NMI. With only that 1% of the 40% will make up 70% of the 2017 arrivals. HANMI supports this from the perspective of NMI’s diversification of tourism market sources,” said HANMI.
In addition, HANMI says the Marianas has greatly benefitted from the contributions of Filipinos in terms of economic growth and the inclusion of the Philippines to the visa waiver program would mean a lot to them.
“We have encountered numerous Filipino families, colleagues, friends, and loved ones in the NMI and Guam, and we have greatly benefited from their contributions to the region’s economic growth. We understand that this change would mean a lot to our community members from the Philippines, especially in allowing families to easily stay connected in person,” said HANMI.
Ultimately, HANMI says the most important part of the passing of this House resolution is developing a strong, third source market in the absence of China.
Last Wednesday, the Philippine House of Representatives unanimously voted to pass House Resolution 332 which essentially enlists the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs to request U.S. President Joseph Biden to include the country in the existing Guam/CNMI visa waiver program.
Philippine House Resolution 332 was first introduced by Rep. Rufus B. Rodriguez in 2022.
The Philippine Senate introduced a similar bill back in 2023 but it remains pending.
Arnold I. Palacios
