Here we go again

Ultimate could be understood to mean, last choice.
Any legitimate tourist has a plan, with a ticket, when and how to depart. Enforcing this is not directed at you and me, it's directed at those whose plan is to stay and engage in work or business that would not be approved upon entry. You know the kind of thing.

 

What kind of thing is that ? Thousands of tourist come here with an indeterminate plan of departure who are just "tourists" .. to burden them with a "throwaway ticket" is both ill thought out and wasteful. Whats with the "Us and them" attitude ?

 

Any of those Peso spent on a Philippine owned airline would be being injected into the Philippines.
It's just that we would prefer to inject it in a maner that we chose.

 

There's no need to get hung up over the need for a return ticket as a tourist . All you need is a confirmation of a flight reservation out of the Philippines that's valid long enough to get you through the immigration checks on arrival.
These type of confirmations can be booked instantly through the internet for around 10 US$. (example link, there's many more operators that offer these)

There are other more pressing issues that would need to be dealt with to improve the Philippines' standing as a prime location for retirement, like providing a reasonably priced option to insure oneself against medical costs. Most Europeans would balk at the lack of health insurance here, and find it a inhibiting condition for retirement here. However, since not even the locals have decent health insurance, that will likely remain a pipe dream for at least the next two decades.

 

I don't get the logic of governments thinking that a return ticket proves a person will leave and not "stay and engage in work or business that would not be approved upon entry". If the unused return ticket cost 1748 pesos (c $31 and taken as one example to Hong Kong) and a person stays for a year then surely that person has made a very worthwhile 'profit'. Surely the issue arises when the person leaves and is seen to have overstayed - the only other option is to stay forever and thus the loss of P1748 is very trivial.

I saw this lack of logic in the UK immigration system whereby a Filipino, for example, needs to prove they have a link to their home country which would make them return after the expiry of their tourist visa - this link could be having children/job/property back home.

So they think such a person will then leave after the expiry of a Visa because they have:
A child at home when they prioritise sending money home to care for the children above the need to be with them?
OR have a job to return home to paying P8000 a month as opposed to earning a tax free £2000 (c P132,000), or more, a month by overstaying?
OR have a house at home which they can rent out whilst away?

All of these things prove nothing and, as this thread says, is just wasting money. And, btw, these cheap 'throwaway' tickets are often a scam - I read about them on the internet and the views were very mixed in that some people received this pseudo-ticket and some did not. I risked $10 on one and it never arrived (once bitten, etc.).

The only way to encourage people to leave on time is to stamp the passport and put jail time and/or massive fines for overstaying - that's the only thing will deter most people from overstaying. A country needs to be brainless to think otherwise.

 

That's what they say but no one believes it.