Is there a 3 day grace period if you stay over 21 days in the Philippines.?

Question

I would like to stay in the Philippines for 24 days but I do not know if this is possible without a visa extension. According to a recent news article there is a three day grace period but I have been unable to confirm if this is accurate as of August 2008. Someone told me they had recently stopped doing this. News article is below.

"Libanan eases rules on departing tourists

05 May 2008

In a move to make immigration rules more-friendly to foreigners, the Bureau of Immigration recently eased requirements on foreign tourists who overstay in the country.

BI Commissioner Marcelino C. Libanan recently issued an order to allow foreigners who overstayed for not more than three days to pay extension fees at the airports. This order amends a rule that extension fees should be paid only at the BI main and field offices and not at the airports. Extension fees are paid by foreign nationals who overstay before they are allowed to leave the country."

I would like to know if this is still the case or not.

Answer 1

Ako si Dude answer ^^^ is right on the money.

Answer 2

Just send your passport to the Philippine Embassy and get a 59 day visa before you go.  It only costs about $30.  Download their form from the website and fill it out.  It makes things a lot easier when you get there and you don't have to worry about bribing anybody or paying bogus fees or doing some song and dance about your return ticket when you arrive.  

There's no grace period on the 21 day stamp.  That ruling you quoted is addressing the foreigners who don't bother with extensions and routinely overstay and then pay when they get ready to depart.  What was happening was foreigners with 2-3 months or more overstay were giving bribe cash to the immigration guy at the airport.  The BI response to that was to make it where you couldn't pay your overstay fines at the airport, hopefully to cut down on the graft and corruption going on there.  That ruling caused a lot of problems so they made it a little easier by just allowing legitimate oversights like 2-3 days to be paid there but not everybody like they were doing before.  There was probably a considerable amount of cash being palmed back and forth at the airport immigration counter.

Answer 3

No ! You pay the P500 penality wether you stay one day over or 30. Your still late and you can't pay it at the airport. Plus the new month extension fees. The Goberment is not stupid.