The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said on Thursday that 177 Chinese nationals stranded at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) were finally able to leave for China on a chartered flight on Wednesday night.
They had entered the country before the imposition of a travel ban to and from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau on Feb. 2 amid the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak.
Immigration spokesperson Dana Sandoval said that some of them might have spent the Lunar New Year in the country on Jan. 25. —Tina G. Santos