THE Bureau of Immigration will mobilize 95 immigration officers in all airports and seaports nationwide to manage and facilitate the immigration processing of foreign delegates from member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for meetings here starting this month up to November next year.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente created a special task force, composed of immigration officers, immigration duty supervisors and intelligence agents from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and other ports, who will oversee the bureau’s affairs during the covered period.
Morente directed the task group members to ensure that immigration formalities and port courtesies are properly extended to delegates attending the Asean meetings, the first to be held Nov. 5- 14 in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan during the 6th Asean Chief Justices Round Table on Environment.
He also ordered the group to implement measures that would ensure the safety and security of the delegates during their stay here.
“We have designated special counters at the Naia where the Asean delegates are to be exclusively processed by our immigration officers upon their arrival at the airport,” Morente said.
Meanwhile, BI’s port operations division placed all international airports and seaports nationwide on heightened alert in light of the Philippines’ hosting of the Asean leaders’ summit in 2017 and its preliminary meetings and activities.
Division acting chief Marc Red Mariñas issued a memorandum directing all immigration inspectors and intelligence operatives in the airports and seaports to exercise utmost vigilance in screening arriving passengers and in establishing their real purpose in traveling to the country.
Mariñas said all passengers with doubtful purpose of travel shall be referred for secondary inspection, especially those with questionable travel documents.
He also instructed the division’s intelligence operatives to coordinate with the Interpol and other intelligence agencies in getting a list of personalities and organizations who might undertake terror activities during the Asean meetings.