Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Norman Tansingco says that he is hopeful for the passing of the 2024 budget request for the agency.
During the Public Hearing of the Committee on Finance presided by Senator Sonny Angara, which discussed the proposed 2024 National Expenditure Program of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and its attached agencies last October 9, it was reported that the BI requested a 4.24B budget mainly to procure necessary technological upgrades for the agency.
DOJ Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla shared that the amount is part of the 34.487B budget request of the entire department. He emphasized that this amounts to only 0.60% of the total national budget.
Despite the relatively small amount, Tansingco said that they are confident that they can deliver commitments, particularly in technological upgrades for the Bureau.
Part of the budget, Tansingco said, will be used to procure additional electronic gates for both their arrival and departure operations.
“The medium-term target is to replace 50% of our manual counters to electronic gates,” he shared.
Currently, only 21 e-gates are distributed in major international airports. Tansingco sees the need to expand this to further increase the efficiency of their services and lessen decongestion at airports.
October 30 declared non-working day
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. declared October 30, 2023 as a special non-working day nationwide for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE).
The declaration is contained in Proclamation No. 359 dated October 9, 2023.
“Whereas, it is imperative that the people be given the full opportunity to participate in the said elections and exercise their right of suffrage,” Marcos said in the proclamation, regarding the 2023 BSKE.
“Now, therefore, I, Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby declare Monday, 30 October 2023, as a special (non-working) day throughout the country,” he added.
Originally set for May 2020, the elections faced postponement to December 2022 following the passage of a law in December 2019. In October 2022, a subsequent law sought to cancel the election for October 2023. However, the Supreme Court ruled this law unconstitutional.
As a result, the election will proceed as planned, but the winners will now serve until 2025. Subsequent elections will be held every three years starting from that point.
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