President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered the institutionalization of the government's one-stop electronic travel declaration system to efficiently conduct border control and health surveillance.

Malacañang announced on Saturday that Marcos approved Administrative Order 24, which institutionalizes the Electronic Travel Information (eTravel) system in the country.

Under AO 24, signed by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on 27 August, the eTravel system “shall be used by the government to efficiently conduct border control, health surveillance, tourism statistics analysis, and other travel-related procedures” for all international inbound and outbound passengers and crew members of local airlines and ships.

The President also ordered the creation of a Technical Working Group (TWG) for the eTravel system, which will “study and adopt measures, as may be necessary, that will further improve the system, including its usage, management, and operation, subject to existing laws, rules, and regulations.”

The TWG will be chaired by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and co-chaired by the Bureau of Immigration (BI).

Members will include the Department of Tourism (DOT), the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), the Department of Transportation (DOTr), the Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ), and the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

Marcos said all relevant departments, agencies, bureaus, offices, and instrumentalities “must provide full support to, and cooperation with, the TWG to ensure effective implementation of the order.”

He also instructed the TWG and all relevant entities to ensure compliance with Republic Act (RA) No. 10173, or the Data Privacy Act.

Further, the funding requirement for the implementation of AO 24 shall be charged against the current and available appropriations of DICT, BI, DOT, DMW, DOTr, BOQ, and BOC—subject to pertinent budgeting, accounting, and auditing laws, rules, and regulations.

“Thereafter, the funding requirements necessary for the continued implementation of this Order shall be included in the budget proposals of said agencies, subject to the usual budget preparation process,” the order read.

In December 2022, the DICT, BI, DOT, BOQ, and BOC launched the eTravel System, a unified and integrated digital data collection platform aimed at streamlining various travel declaration procedures for international inbound passengers.

The system was expanded in April 2023 to cover all international inbound and outbound passengers and crew members arriving in and departing from the Philippines.