FOR an additional P2.63 billion—one of the biggest budget increases among agencies for next year—the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said it would process incoming and outgoing travelers “within 45 seconds,” but “will new rules prevent this?” asked Deputy House Deputy Speaker Ralph Recto on Sunday.
In a statement, Recto said the BI’s pledge is part of its 2024 budget request of P4.24 billion, a 163-percent jump (or P2.63 billion) from its P1.61-billion 2023 budget.
Under budgeting rules and format, an agency’s deliverables, called “performance information,” are part of its appropriations request.
Recto said that for 2024, the BI commits to a primary inspection processing time for 99 percent of entering and exiting passengers.
“That’s their promissory note to taxpayers: Increase our budget to P4.25 billion, and almost all passengers will be gone in 45 seconds,” he said.
Recto called on BI to “better deliver on this pledge because the P2.6-billion increase they are seeking will be for new equipment for, in their own words, ‘the enhancement of the border management information system.’”
And whatever that system is, he stressed, “it should be able to filter out undesirables like undocumented POGO workers and not establish a Berlin Wall of immigration hurdles for Filipinos going on budget tours to nearby Asian cities.”
Recto said that “for clarity of objective,” Congress should insist that the processing time be clocked the moment a passenger lines up and not when he or she is in front of the immigration booth.
Recto is also wondering how the new government rules that will take effect on September 2, which require Filipinos traveling overseas to be ready to present more documentary requirements, would impact the BI’s “gone in 45 seconds rule.”
“Will this create a logjam that will hassle not just travelers but immigration officers as well? If the processing is as lengthy as a job interview or like a cross-examination with more questions, will the stricter rules cut speed?” Recto said.
Recto said rising passenger volumes plus the lack of airport space to put up more immigration booths slow down passenger processing.
Recto said the government should plow back to Filipino travelers the tax they pay for the right to travel and the fees for the use of airports.
He described Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) as a “profit center” for all government offices operating there.
As air travel normalizes, the agencies are on target to equal or surpass their pre-pandemic 2019 earnings, he said.
The gross revenues of the Manila International Airport Authority (Miaa), which runs Naia, were P15.2 billion in 2019.
That year, Tieza raked in P7.2 billion in travel tax collections, Recto added. “It was also in 2019 that B.I. reported a gross income of P10.5 billion.”
Iacat rules
Cagayan de Oro 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, meanwhile, opposed the decision of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) to impose stricter rules on Filipino travelers, including migrant workers, starting September 3.
“The more stringent rules will unduly interfere with the Filipinos’ right to travel,” Rodriguez, a former immigration commissioner, said.
Noting that the additional regulations would require a traveler to show proof of financial capacity like a bank statement and proof of income, the Mindanao lawmaker said such a requirement would “violate the departing passenger’s right to privacy.”
“Those are unreasonable rules. They will give Filipino tourists, overseas Filipino workers, and other travelers a lot of inconvenience, and they could make them vulnerable to harassment and extortion by corrupt immigration officers and other airport personnel,” he said.
He added that the Iacat is allowing immigration officers to exercise “subjective judgment, whims, and discretion” on departing passengers.
“I am afraid that’s where extortion, harassment, and corruption will arise,” he stressed.
Rodriguez urged the Iacat to scrap its stricter rules while there is still time to do so.
Rodriguez said it is unreasonable and unjustifiable for the council to subject all Filipino travelers to stricter rules so the agency could collar traffickers and trafficking victims.
He said human traffickers, clever as they are, could even go around the additional regulations by providing their victims with show money.
“In this digital age and with internet banking, it would be very easy for a trafficker to transfer some funds to his or her victim and for the latter to return the money once she or he clears immigration or reaches her or his destination,” he added.
He pointed out that the harsher rules would also surely create long queues at immigration counters.
Under the revised Iacat rules, the required travel documents for tourists now consist of a passport valid for at least six months before the date of departure, a valid visa, a boarding pass, a confirmed return or roundtrip ticket, proof of hotel, proof of financial capacity or source of income consistent with the passenger’s declared purpose of travel, proof of employment, and other equivalent evidence.
There are other additional requirements for migrant workers and other Filipinos going abroad on “sponsored travel.”
With P2.6-B budget hike, can BI proces travelers faster?
Source: News Paper Radio
0 Comments