The Bureau of Immigration deployed an additional 37 immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport which is expected to reduce long queues and hasten the processing of travel papers of passengers at the country’s premier airport.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente ordered the immediate deployment of the new employees to the three terminals of the Naia last week to augment the bureau’s workforce at the airport.
He said the immigration officers were deployed to the Naia right after completing their training on immigration laws, rules and procedures.
Long passenger queues at the Naia’s immigration counter became a subject of controversy in recent months as some immigration officers resigned or went on indefinite leave as a result of the discontinuance of their overtime pay from the express lane fund.
This has forced the BI management to reassign to the Naia immigration employees stationed at its main office in Manila and other field offices in the provinces.
Morente said the long lines have been minimized in recent days as fewer immigration officers have been skipping work since the Palace assured that steps will be undertaken to upgrade the take-home pay of BI employees.The BI chief said the lack of manpower at the Naia and other airports will soon be addressed with the impending recruitment of more than 200 new immigration officers within the next two months.
“We have started the process of selecting these new personnel by administering written tests and interviewing thousands of applicants who hail from different places, including the Visayas and Mindanao,” he said.
Morente also said that several lawmakers have assured the BI that a new Philippine immigration law will be passed during the present Congress.
He reiterated that only the enactment of a new immigration law can provide a feasible and lasting solution to the decades-old problem of lack of manpower in the BI and the low salary scales of its workers.
