CLARK FREEPORT – A top executive of a five-star hotel in this Freeport said that the government should allow the visa-free entry of Indian nationals in Clark.
Alfred Reyes, general manager of Widus Hotel and Casino, said that a law allows Indians to enter the country, through the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), without visa or “visa upon arrival.”
“At NAIA 1, 2, 3, and 4, if you’re an Indian national and you would like to come to the Philippines, they enter visa-free. There is a law that has been passed already. If you are an Indian national, as long as you land at NAIA 1, 2, 3, and 4, automatically you are going to get a visa or if not, you will get your visa upon arrival,” Reyes said.
In Clark, the Indians are still required to secure visas before their travel, said Reyes.
He said that their group, which consists of Clark locators, has been lobbying to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Bureau of Immigration (BI) to allow the same method in Clark International Airport (CRK).
“We already had talks with the Immigration here, we ask them what could be the procedure,” Reyes said.
The Clark International Airport Corporation, headed by president Victor Jose I. Luciano, also asked the DFA and BI to allow the visa-free entry of Indian nationals.
Travel, hotel and restaurant owners in Pampanga and Central Luzon are also clamoring that Clark airport should enjoy the same benefit of having Indian nationals enter sans a visa, Reyes said.
The AirAsia announced the relaunching of their Kuala Lumpur — Clark flights and vice versa on October 17. Reyes said that when the airline was flying out of Kuala Lumpur, in Malaysia to Clark, the carrier to India was AirAsia.