More than 100 new Immigration officers will be deployed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and other major ports to augment the bureau’s workforce at the airports and in preparation for the huge increase in passenger volume this coming Holy Week.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said a total of 101 new employees will be deployed in the coming weeks to international airport terminals to reduce long queues and hasten the processing of travel papers of passengers at the country’s premier airport.
BI chief personnel officer Grifton Medina said the new BI officers started their two-month training at the Philippine Immigration Academy in Clark, Pampanga after their stint at the academy.
There they will be taught lessons on immigration laws, rules and procedures, the employees will still undergo a month-long on-the-job training at the airport and main office.
“Be sure that before they are deployed to the ports they are adequately prepared and equipped with the knowledge and capability to perform their jobs as gatekeepers of the country,” Morente told Medina.
Morente also instructed the BI Center for Training and Research headed by lawyer Ronaldo Ledesma and Supervisor Administrative Officer Thelma Guiritan to “administer written and oral tests to the trainees to ascertain if they are ready to become our country’s gatekeepers.”