The Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Sunday welcomed the Department of Foreign Affairs’ (DFA) decision to impose tougher visa requirements for Chinese nationals.

According to BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco, the DFA’s move provides an additional security measure against foreigners with potentially hostile intentions toward the state’s security.

In its capacity, Tansingco said the bureau was able to reject admission to 3,359 foreign nationals last year, the majority of whom had questionable travel reasons and were deemed likely to constitute a public charge.

He noted that of the 3,359 foreign individuals that were excluded, 885 were Chinese nationals.

The BI chief believes that stricter visa requirements will have little impact on the country’s tourism industry.

“The move is really just filtering out those undesirables that are trying to enter the country,” Tansingco said.

“Regular tourists need not be worried,” he added.

Tansingco said the prompt action by the DFA will result in fewer exclusions, given that arriving tourists have already been filtered during their visa applications at the Philippine posts abroad.

According to the bureau, Chinese nationals were the fifth largest group of foreign tourists in 2023, with 246,179 arrivals.

South Koreans topped the list, with 1,467,051 arrivals, followed by Americans, Japanese and Australians.