Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Norman Tansingco said that the agency is exploring the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for its operations.
Speaking in a forum last September 27, Tansingco shared that BI heads attended a biometrics conference in Montreal, Canada to benchmark technology trends for the Philippines.
The conference, dubbed as the 18th Symposium on the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Traveller Identification Programme (TRIP) and Joint International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) Biometrics forum was attended by the BI Chief last September 12-14 to study and adopt global trends on immigration and border management.
He also attended a meeting with Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and viewed the facilities of the Vancouver International Airport.
In the said conference, Tansingco said that he saw how AI can improve immigration processing by adding a layer of security. AI technology, he said, can be used to detect impostors and falsified documents even before they reach immigration counters.
“Naglalakad palang sila, makikita na ng AI kung may suspicious documents or activities sila,” said Tansingco. AI technologies are expected to provide facial recognition and document matching features.
BI to explore the use of AI
He clarified that AI will not replace immigration officers, but instead unburden them from the manual processing to maximize the BI’s manpower.
Tansingco added that the technological advancements, including the expansion of the BI’s e-gates will significantly improve the BI’s operations.
“Currently we are doing manual processing, and it takes 45 seconds per passenger,” said Tansingco. “The e-gates can decrease processing time to as low as 8 seconds,” he added.
He shared that due to the limited airport space, technologies such as e-gates are necessary to lessen queueing time.
“If you notice, immigration areas of other countries are massive, hence they are able to place more personnel or gates. Here, we have limited space, so we need these technologies to make things faster,” he added.
Tansingco firmly sees the need to modernize immigration systems to be at par with international counterparts. He has continuously pushed for the approval of the proposed Immigration Modernization Law, which updates the country’s 83-year-old Philippine Immigration Act.
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