Has the United States finally heard President Rodrigo Duterte’s announcements about how unfair it is for Filipinos to get a visa to enter the US while Americans can easily visit the Philippines without one?
One of the articles circulating on Facebook claimed that the US finally granted a ‘no visa’ policy for the Filipinos, which meant they no longer need visa to get to the US. Duterte fan page Duterte 2016 Bohol “Calapenhon Movement” shared the article.
We can no longer access the article from that link shared by that fan page, but we went ahead and Googled that article, posted by te1egraph.com. No, the site is in no way associated with the UK news site The Telegraph.
We found the article and according to it, the US Department of State updated the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), now including the Philippines as the 39th country whose citizens no longer need a visa to stay in the US. The article added that this only applies to those who wish to stay in the US for up to six months for business or tourism purposes. Those who wanted to stay in the country longer have to apply for a visa.
Te1egraph also claimed that US Secretary of State John Kerry said that the US State Department decided to add the Philippines to the VWP program “to facilitate business and strengthen ties between the countries.”
But according to the US Customs and Border Protection, there are still 38 countries listed in the VWP. The Philippines is not one of them.
Moreover, the citizens of those 38 countries can only stay in the US for tourism or business for up to 90 days without a visa, not six months, as Te1egraph has claimed.
Under the VWP, those 38 countries should also allow US citizens and nationals to visit their countries for up to 90 days without a visa for tourism or business purposes.
Another visa-related article claimed that the US wants a “bilateral visa policy” with Asia after President Duterte’s announcement. This was shared by several Duterte fan pages, such as Rodrigo Duterte Lines, Rodrigo Duterte Support Page by Dr Eli Alegado, and Duterte Diehard Supporters. It was also shared by the FB page Pilipinas Online Updates.
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The “bilateral visa policy” article was picked up by blogs like Pilipinas Online Updates, Tartey, Netizensph, Du30newsinfo, which are among the blogs that we have noted for sharing several fake or satire news.
According to the articles published by these blogs, the US Secretary of State Kerry said that the US is considering a “two-sided visa arrangement” with Asia. This statement was said to have come after Duterte hit the US for its “prohibitive visa arrangement” for Filipinos.
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The articles quoted Kerry saying: “We are almost done putting measures in place to ensure that we don’t enter into agreements that would ruin our immigration policies. We have created a system to ensure visitors do not do contrary to what their visas allow them to.” They also claimed that Kerry failed to specify when this reciprocal understanding over the visa policy will be implemented.
We traced the sources of the articles and found out that they originated from USATODAYTV. When we checked the home page of the website, we found several fake articles in it, such as Senator Manny Pacquiao resigning, Donald Trump donating $20 million to Haiti (fake story from Updater24 and DW-Tv3), and Agot Isidro being investigated for dating drug lords (she isn’t, as what we’ve busted earlier).
This meant the website that broke the story about the “bilateral visa policy” from the US to Asian countries cannot be trusted, what with its publication of several fake stories. Moreover, there are no other sources that can verify this change in US visa policy.
For those who are hoping to get real updates regarding US visa, just visit the official website of the US Embassy in the Philippines.
Source: (cbp.gov)
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