MANILA - A House panel adopted on Monday a resolution urging the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to request for the Philippines’ inclusion in the list of countries eligible to participate in the visa waiver program of Guam and the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands.

This will allow Filipino non-immigrant visitors to seek entry and stay in these island-territories of the United States, without visa for a maximum of 45 days, for business or pleasure.

Under House Resolution 332 authored by Cagayan de Oro City 2nd District Rep.  Rufus Rodriguez, the DFA is urged to make the request to the office of the United States President.

“I think this is the opportune time to pass this resolution, because the United States is openly embracing the Philippines as one of its most important allies in the Pacific,” Rodriguez said.

“Upwards of 70,000 Filipinos are residing in Guam… beckon their families and relatives to visit them… We have hundreds of workers, especially in the new bases built for the transfer of the Okinawa base to Guam, who also wish to be visited by their families,” he added.

“The individual spending habits of Filipinos who visit Guam often exceed those of visitors from the Guam visitor industry’s primary source markets of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan,” the lawmaker noted.

The DFA expressed support for the resolution.

“Nationals of the US are granted visa-free privileges in the Philippines, which allow them to enter and stay in the country for a period 30 days. In this regard, the DFA Interposes no objection to house resolution 332, in principle of reciprocity in the visa privileges granted to US nationals,” DFA Assistant Director Antonio Miranda told the panel.

According to the house resolution, the list of nations approved for participation in the Guam-CNMI Visa Waiver Program so far include Australia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. Visa-waiver status countries must first be designated as “program countries” by the US Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the US Secretary of State. The criteria for a “program country” designation stresses passport security, a non-immigrant visa refusal rate of below 3%, and reciprocal visa waivers for US passport holders.

“The Philippine passport now ranks as the world’s 77th most powerful with access to 66 nations without a visa, up five spots from calendar year 2021. Each Philippine ePassport contains an RFID microchip to store information securely and help protect against safety threats and identity theft,” Rodriguez said.