Despite the temporary discontinuance of charging the express lane fees last year, the Bureau of Immigration still earned an all-time high income of P4.75 billion from various fees it collected from its clientele and the transacting public.
While it collected more than P4 billion in 2017, the BI employees will get their overtime pay in the middle of February, and will be divided based on the collections it earned from the ELF which started on Jan. 2, 2018.
The BI will get at least 90 percent from the ELF collections while the rest to the government coffers, the Department of Budget and Management said.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said that the BI’s 2017 revenue take was P894.6 million or 18 percent higher than the P3.86 billion the agency earned in 2016.
Morente observed that the bureau still managed to register record high revenues despite the unusually frequent declaration of holidays and work suspensions as well as the numerous resignations of BI personnel nationwide last year due to financial difficulties arising from the drastic reduction of their take-home pay in 2017.
“This is a tribute to the men and women of the bureau who persevered and opted to remain in their jobs even in the face of financial adversities. They are the unsung heroes of our bureau who deserve our deepest appreciation and gratitude,” the BI chief said.
Morente said he is optimistic that the BI will surpass its 2017 record and remit a bigger amount to the national coffers this year as its employees are doubly inspired and motivated to work harder with the restoration of their benefits by President Rodrigo Duterte.
Scores of BI workers quit their jobs last year due to the drastic reduction of their salaries and their low salary grades. This happened after the Palace vetoed the use of their express lane collections in paying the overtime services of its regular employees and salaries of its contractual personnel.
The President, however, reinstated the same benefit this year stating that he recognizes the hard work and sacrifices of the BI personnel and that their present salary grade is very low and needs to be augmented until a new Immigration law is passed addressing their compensation.
Lawyer Ma. Antonette Mangrobang, BI spokesperson, also attributed the large revenue take to the success of government efforts in aggressively marketing the Philippines as an international tourist destination and the increasing number of multinational companies operating in the country.
She also cited the holding of several international events in Manila such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders’ summit and the Miss Universe beauty pageant.
We also became more efficient in our collections system due to the full computerization of our official receipts and order of payment slips issuances and the strict monitoring of our collections in the main office and our sub-port and field offices,” Mangrobang added.
