This is old and it's hard to find this exact wording on other sites. As I said old and all the COVID stuff no longer applies. FAQs: Travel to the Philippines of Foreign Nationals - Embassy of the Philippines in Singapore (philippine-embassy.org.sg)
I'm not sure how many others on here have flown there as often as I have, I've not updated Flight Diary for a while I should make a point of that as it keeps an accurate track but I'm on something like trip 35 now, that gives me more opportunity than most for things to go wrong and more pressure to make sure that I do things right, the odds of me being checked are just greater because of the sheer number of return trips.
Thank you all for your replies. My interpretation of the rules is that (in my case) as a Balikbayan and a former Ph citizen, me my children and spouse have the Balikbayan privilege that we can stay in the country for up to a year. A friend and her family have recently travelled to Ph for 2 months and was advised by the immigration officer in Ph that they do not need a visa waiver. They were also not asked by the airline here in the UK for a visa. I still find it very confusing though.
Quote from RA 9174 Balikbayan program - now it makes sense, countries listed includes UK. The Balikbayan Program also extends to immediate family members (spouse and children) of the Balikbayan, who are nationals of one of the countries above, and travelling together with the Balikbayan. The program allows visa-free entry into the Philippines and visa-free stay for a period of one (1) year for Balikbayans who are former Filipinos and/or the immediate family of Balikbayans who are from the above countries.
That is correct although if you have not recovered your Philippines citizenship (you say former Ph citizen) then you should maybe make sure you have some identifying document such as an old expired Philippine passport or your birth certificate, this is for the UK check-in desk side of the process I'm sure speaking fluent Tagalog at the philippine immigration desk end of things they will realise you are a former Ph citizen. Also advice to all Balikbayan's in the past has been to make sure you have your marriage certificate with you or a copy of it so as to prove your relationship to your husband so that he and the rest of the family can avail of your Balikbayan privilege. I was once given Balikbayan privilege in error back in 2010 when I returned to the Philippines in the company of my partner we were not married but I had been given the stamp in my passport, they were not supposed to do that.
That route for the record is also not allowed, I know how things can be there but strictly speaking you can't get Balikbayan privilege if the Filipino 'wife' or Filipino 'husband' is not standing there at immigration with their partner and or children. For example if I ever manage to get my daughter to the UK, I would not get get Balikbayan privilege just because we returned to the Philippines together, it's a privilege of the adult Filipino traveller that gets extended to their direct family through marriage.
