The President made the announcement in his speech keynoting the Singapore Business Forum/International Enterprise (SBF/IE) Eminent Leaders Lecture at the Shangri-la Hotel here.

He said that the first order of business, however, is to remove the “bottlenecks” that hinder the imminent growth of the Philippines as a key tourist destination.

“We are finalizing the details of an executive order that will liberalize the entry of foreign carriers in a way that will not decimate our local carriers.

"We need these local carriers to address the needs of our overseas workers in case of emergencies such as those happening in the Middle East today. Under this order, we will allow foreign carriers to fly into key destinations in the Philippines,” the President said.

“Beyond that, we are also addressing technical and regulatory issues that have been allowed to worsen in the previous decade. This led to the banning of Philippine aviation into Europe and the downgrading of Philippine carriers to category 2 under US FAA regulations,” he added.

The Chief Executive said he had ordered the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines to resolve these issues within a year so that Philippine carriers can resume flights to European destinations and that we will be removed from Category 2 under FAA regulations.

“Once these bottlenecks have been resolved, we will embark on an aggressive marketing campaign that will brand and sell the Philippines as a key tourist destination in the outside world,” the President said.