The Bureau of Immigration (BI) assured the public that it has sufficient manpower to cater to the expected increase in passengers during the summer season.
According to BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco, the BI currently sees around 30,000 daily arrivals, and processes around 34,000 departures.
“Apart from no leaves for port personnel during the peak season, I have instructed the BI airport terminal heads to personally make sure that all counters are fully manned to service all inbound and outbound passengers,” said Tansingco.
He also instructed BI terminal heads to engage airlines for a more efficient processing of passengers.
“Airport authorities have shared that the BI’s space in Ninoy Aquino Internaional Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 will be expanded soon, which will allow us to deploy more immigration officers,” said Tansingco. “Apart from that, we are expecting a new batch of 38 immigration officers to graduate from the Philippine Immigration Academy (PIA) in Clark, followed by a batch of 147 additional immigration officers,” he added.
Tansingco shared that they are constantly hiring immigration officers to add to the increasing demand as an international travel surge.
Meanwhile, the BI addressed a viral Twitter post showing that photos and videos are not allowed in the immigration area.
Manpower enough during summer peak season – BI
“The policy of disallowing photos and videos in the immigration area is not new, and similar signages have been posted in the past,” said Tansingco. “The same is being practiced in many countries,” he added.
Tansingco however, agreed that the signages have to be improved to reflect the hospitality of the Filipino people.
“While the policy remains, I have instructed the BI airport management to temporarily remove the signages for them to be improved,” he stated.
Meanwhile, BI said it has prohibited its port personnel from going on leave for three weeks, to ensure that adequate officers are available to serve the traveling the public before, during and after the Holy Week break.
In a statement, Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said ban on leave, which starts on March 24 and ends on April 15, applies to BI employees assigned at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and all the other international ports nationwide.
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