Thousands of Filipino travelers who were offloaded by Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers without a court order can soon reimburse the travel expenses they incurred after the Department of Justice signed a guideline for the reimbursement process.
The BI said that the guidelines for reimbursing the travel expense of Filipino passengers whose travel was deferred have already been okayed by the agency.
Senate President Chiz Escudero urged BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado to rush the reimbursements.
It was Escudero who introduced a special provision in the 2024 General Appropriations Act that mandated the reimbursement of passengers who were left behind by their flights after being subjected to lengthy interrogation by immigration personnel for one reason or another.
The funds will be drawn from the unutilized collections of the BI that are returned to the Bureau of Treasury. In 2022, 32,404 Filipino passengers were not allowed to proceed with their flights. Out of the total, only 472 were found to be victims of human trafficking or illegal recruitment.
