Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Jaime Morente thanked the House of Representatives for approving on final reading House Bill No. 8850 or the “Bureau of Immigration Modernization Act.”
In a statement, Morente thanked members of congress for approving the proposed law, with 209 affirmative votes, zero negative, and no abstention.
Morente earlier expressed his appreciation to congress for naming the proposed law as one of the important measures identified by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).
The new law seeks to modernize structures and mechanisms necessary for the administration of immigration laws, and to professionalize immigration service by instituting a rigid system for screening and selection of officials and employees.
“We thank Congress for seeing the importance of updating our law,” said Morente. “The prevailing law has been there since the 1940s, and many of its provisions are already outdated. This new law will reorganize the structure of the BI, specify responsibilities, define visa categories, put in safeguards for checks and balances, and improve the salaries of our personnel,” he added.
BI hosts ASEAN immigration meeting
Meanwhile, BI has successfully hosted this year’s ASEAN Directors-General of Immigration Departments and Heads of Consular Affairs Divisions of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs (DGICM), which was held via videoconferencing.
The two-day event, which happened last August 25 and 26, was a series of meetings of immigration heads to discuss regional plans for immigration matters.
According to BI Commissioner Jaime Morente, hosting the event virtually was a big challenge for the Bureau.
“We hosted the first ever videoconference meeting of the DGICM,” said Morente. “It was initially scheduled as an in-person event pre-covid, but we had to make adjustments when the pandemic came. It was a challenge that we have successfully accomplished, despite the obstacles brought about by Covid-19,” he added.
Through the DGICM, heads of immigration and consular offices in the 10 ASEAN member states meet annually to discuss various activities, and concerns regarding border management.
This year’s meeting, which was the 24th of the series, and was attended by ASEAN director generals, commissioners, consular heads, as well as the ASEAN secretariat.
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