For an extra P2.63 billion in its budget next year, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said it would process incoming and outgoing travelers within 45 seconds.
The bureau’s pledge is part of its 2024 budget request of P4.24 billion, which is 163 percent more than its budget this year, House Deputy Speaker Ralph Recto said.
Under budgeting rules, an agency’s deliverables—called “performance information—are part of its appropriations request.
Recto said that for 2024, the B.I. commits to “a primary inspection processing time for 99 percent of entering and exiting passengers.”
“That’s their promissory note to taxpayers: Increase our budget to P4.25 billion and almost all passengers will be gone in 45 seconds,“ he said.
Recto said the BI “better deliver on this pledge” as the P2.6 billion increase they are seeking will be for new equipment.
Whatever the system they choose, it should be able to filter out “undesirables” such as undocumented workers for Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), without causing inconvenience to legitimate Filipino travelers.
Recto said “for clarity of objective,” Congress should insist that the processing time be clocked the moment a passenger lines up and not when he or she is in front of the immigration booth.
“You can be processed in 45 seconds but stand in line for half an hour,” Recto said in Filipino. “It should be stated in the General Appropriations Act that the clock begins when the traveler starts to line up.”
Recto also questioned how the new guidelines on departing Filipinos aimed at combating human trafficking might affect this 45-second goal.
“Will this create a logjam that will hassle not just travelers, but Immigration officers as well?” he said.
Over the weekend, the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) defended the new guidelines, saying they were not intended to intrude on people’s privacy or hinder travel.
Justice Assistant Secretary Mico Clavano, who represented the IACAT, which is headed by the Department of Justice, said the guidelines, in fact, strengthen government measures to fight human trafficking in the country.
“Well, this is really not a hindrance to the right to travel. This is a policy of the government that aims at eradicating or stopping the widespread and worsening problem of human trafficking,” Clavano said in an interview on Saturday.
He appealed to outbound Filipino travelers, especially overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to follow the revised IACAT guidelines by preparing the required documents before proceeding to immigration counters at the airports to “ensure hassle-free processing of their travel documents.”
“In fact, according to our statistics, almost 99 percent of the time there is no problem at all,” he said, and it is only those who are vulnerable to human trafficking that may be required to show more documents.
Clavano made the statement after Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez criticized the new IACAT guidelines as ”more stringent rules [that] will unduly interfere with the Filipinos’ right to travel.”
Rodriguez said requiring a traveler to show proof of financial capacity, like a bank statement or proof of income, would also violate the departing passenger’s right to privacy and unjustly subject travelers to the whims of the immigration officer.
“IACAT is allowing immigration officers to exercise ‘subjective judgment, whims and discretion’ on departing passengers. I am afraid that’s where extortion, harassment and corruption will arise,” he added.
A former Bureau of Immigration commissioner, Rodriguez said human traffickers could even go around the additional regulations by providing their victims with show money.
Senator Risa Hontiveros said ”Filipinos traveling out of the country should not be treated as second-class citizens within our own airports.”
“Let us give our fellow Filipinos a chance to relax and visit their relatives without the stress,” she added.
Clavano clarified that the revised guidelines are similar to the 2015 policy and that IACAT is not imposing additional documentary requirements on travelers.
Basic immigration requirements include a valid passport, visa, roundtrip ticket, and boarding pass.
“What we did was we identified the different categories of travelers, [and] we added to that,” Clavano said.
The DOJ official expressed hopes the new guidelines could serve as a deterrent to syndicates and fraudsters victimizing Filipinos, particularly after the US State Department gave the Philippines a Tier 1 ranking in the fight against human trafficking, which means government measures are effective and working.