IMMIGRATION officials and employees welcomed a proposed bill reverting the name of the bureau into Commission on Immigration to make it more responsive to the needs and challenges of the times.
The new bill titled “The Philippine Immigration and Homeland Security Act” was authored by Reps. Feliciano Belmonte Jr., Xavier Jesus Romualdo, Evelina Escudero, Leopoldo Bataoil, and Maximo Rodriguez Jr.
Immigration officials said renaming the bureau into a commission would raise the salary cap of all BI officials and employees.
The row over the pay at the BI erupted after President Rodrigo Duterte vetoed a 2017 budget provision on the use of Express Lane Funds to augment the salaries of immigration personnel.
The Express Lane Fund, taken from fees charged at the airport Express Lane, had been the source of overtime pay for Bureau of Immigration employees for 29 years.
At present, immigration officers, most of whom are under salary grade 11, receive P14,000 to P16,000 a month.
In a statement, Bataoil said despite several amendments and reorganizations made on the BI, there was still an urgent need to amend or revise Commonwealth Act No. 613, or “The Philippine Immigration Act of 1940” to be more responsive to the present times and for a wider scope of functions and jurisdictions.
Bataoil said the present BI was created through the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940 (Commonwealth Act No. 613).
It became an attached agency of the Department of Justice and when martial law was declared in 1972, the Bureau of Immigration was renamed Commission on Immigration and Deportation.
The agency reverted to its original name the Bureau of Immigration in 1987 by virtue of Executive Order No. 292 signed by President Corazon Aquino.
Belmonte said the BI should be clothed with a renewed mandate to deliver world-class immigration services that will promote the country’s image in the international community as a safe tourist destination and a potential investment site.
Belmonte also said globalization had brought about mass human migration and ushered in the birth of international criminal syndicates engaged in human trafficking, drug trafficking and terrorism.
Aside from law enforcement, the impact of globalization on immigration can be felt in the economy as evidenced by the influx of foreigners coming to the country for business, pleasure or employment.
Escudero said there was a need to modernize structures and mechanisms necessary for the administration of immigration laws in keeping with the changing demands of the country’s role in the global community.
The bill creates the Commission on Immigration or Commission which shall be principally responsible for the administration and enforcement of the Act, and the implementation of all laws, rules, regulations or orders of any competent authority concerning the entry and admission into, stay in, and the departure from the country of all persons.
The Commission shall be administered by the Board of Commissioners headed by the Commissioner as Chairperson, and two Deputy Commissioners as members, all of whom shall be natural-born citizens of the Philippines and, at the time of their appointment, at least 35 years of age, holders of a college degree and with proven capacity for administration.