Senator Chiz Escudero, on a social media post in X, reassured the employees of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) that the budget for refunding offloaded passengers would not be taken from their salaries and benefits. Instead, it will be deducted from the excess income returned by BI to the National Treasury.
The money to refund off-loaded passengers will not come from/nor will it be deducted from BI Personnel. It will come from the excess income of the BI that is being returned to the Treasury…. contd…
— Chiz Escudero (@SayChiz) December 14, 2023
“Any diminution from the salary and augmentation of BI personnel is illegal and unauthorized! Will look closely into this to ensure that the intent and mandate of Congress regarding this is followed to the letter,” he added.
The 2024 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) has a provision that allows the reimbursement of passengers who miss their flights due to long immigration assessments. According to BI, a total of 32,404 Filipino passengers were offloaded last year. 472 of these were found to be victims of human trafficking, 873 presented fraudulent documents and at least 10 were minors who tried to work illegally abroad.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is set to sign the GAB or the 2024 Budget Bill on December 20 according to a press release by the Senate of the Philippines.
