RANK and file employees of the Bureau of Immigration on Friday accused Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno of misinforming the public about their unpaid overtime, and said there was no concerted effort to go on mass leave that has led to long passenger queues at the immigration counters of the airport.
Members of the BI workers’ union Buklod and Immigration Officers Association of the Philippines asked the Budget secretary to be truthful in his statements to media as his recent pronouncements did not only distort facts but have also further demoralized the bureau’s employees.
“Contrary to Secretary Diokno’s assertion that immigration officers are job order [contractual] employees who could easily be replaced, they are actually permanent employees occupying plantilla positions and who enjoy security of tenure protection under our civil service laws,” Buklod and IOAP said in a press statement.
The two groups also played down Diokno’s claim that some 200 soldiers are already being trained to replace immigration officers who resigned or have gone on leave.
“There is no deliberate or organized effort by our members to paralyze our operations and inconvenience the traveling public. If by coincidence our members are absent or are on sick leaves at the same time, these are forced and caused by their inability to shoulder their expenses in going to work and not because they wanted to abandon their duties,” the group said.
They stressed that an immigration officer’s job is very sensitive and critical. “You just don’t put somebody in the airport’s immigration booth and tell him to stamp every traveler who presents himself for inspection. Otherwise, our national security will be compromised. We are not called gatekeepers for nothing,” the statement said.
It added that immigration officers hired by the bureau actually undergo rigid screening and training on immigration laws, rules and procedures for four to six months at a training academy in Clark, Pampanga before they are deployed to the airports and seaports. “Many of our young recruits are the cream of the crop who hail from some of the best schools in the country.”
They said applicants for immigration officer must have a four-year college degree, possess professional civil service eligibility and pass difficult oral and written tests before being hired.
The BI workers also described as not feasible the DBM’s offer of 900 new plantilla positions that will purportedly address the problem of manpower lack in the bureau.
They said opening new vacant positions is not the solution as it did not address the main problem of very low salary scale of BI personnel.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, who has supervision over the bureau, said he would see the “good offices” of the President to solve the problem at immigration, after Diokno turned down his proposal to temporarily allow the use of express lane collections to fund overtime pay, as was done before the 2017 national budget.
Aguirre said there is a need for Congress to expedite the enactment of a measure mandating the implementation of reforms in the BI amid exodus of BI personnel at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport due to non-payment of overtime pay.
He said an amendment to the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940 is needed to adjust the current pay of immigration personnel, most of whom are only receiving P14,000 in monthly salary. He said Senator Loren Legarda has already expressed full support for the passage of a measure to amend the 77-year-old law.
Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles also said they would study the proposal to amend the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940, a Commonwealth-era law.
But Aguirre acknowledged that a legislated solution would take time, and there was a need for an immediate solution. He added that failure to solve the problem would hurt tourism and could affect national security.
Diokno earlier rejected Aguirre’s proposal on ground that it would violate Republic Act 10924 or the General Appropriations Act of 2017.
The Budget and Management chief insisted that what the BI employees were asking for was against the law since the latter mandates that overtime pay for public sector employees should not exceed 50 percent of their regular salary.
To alleviate the problem of long queue at the Naia, especially with the expected influx of travelers who are going on vacation here and abroad this Holy Week, Aguirre said BI chief Jaime Morente has deployed an additional 170 personnel to man immigration counters at the country’s premiere airport.
Morente also canceled all the approved leaves of his employees for the month. With Maricel V. Cruz