The Bureau of Immigration will be deploying over 150 immigration officers to brace for the influx of passengers ahead of the Holy Week.
The additional immigration officers will be deployed to the Clark International Airport and Terminals 1, 2, and 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
“We have deployed additional personnel to service travelers during the Holy Week, when we expect a significant rise in travelers,” BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said in a statement.
The BI estimates around 40,000 passengers to leave and enter the country starting next week.
Tansingco said that they are also processing the hiring of 140 more officers of the BI this year.
“Right now the area is small, but once expanded, we will be able to add more counters and more immigration officers to service departing passengers,” the BI chief commented.
Last week, Senator JV Ejercito filed a resolution seeking to investigate the Bureau of Immigration over the unprofessional behavior of their personnel and inefficient departure protocols.
Ejercito wants to look into the cases of offloaded passengers over unnecessary questioning of BI personnel.
“The power of the Bureau has been a subject of abuse over the years where there have been previous incidents of its officers subjecting travelers to a tedious and unreasonable departure procedure, causing travelers to miss their flights or their departure deferred by the officer altogether,” the resolution read.
“There is an urgent need to review the processes and departure protocols being implemented by the Bureau for international-bound passengers to avert similar incidents and to ultimately protect every Filipino citizen’s guaranteed constitutional right to travel,” it added.
The resolution comes after the story of Cham Tanteras went viral on Tiktok over her experience with the Immigration.
Cham said that the BI official even asked for her yearbook and checked her emails that led to her missing her flight to Israel in December.
Ejercito said that lawmakers should review the 80 year-old Immigration Act.
