The Bureau of Immigration (BI) will deploy 63 more immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to beef up its force conducting primary inspection of international travelers arriving and departing at the country’s premiere port.
In a statement, BI Commissioner Jaime Morente disclosed that those to be reassigned to the NAIA would finish next week their month-long training on immigration laws, rules and procedures at the Philippine Immigration Academy in Clark, Pampanga.
Morente said the 63 personnel were among the 195 recently-hired BI employees.
He added that the next batch of newly-recruited BI officers will commence their training at the academy right after the first batch of trainees were deployed this July.
“We are confident that the deployment of these new immigration inspectors will help address the perennial problem of lack of manpower of BI personnel,” Morente stated.
Lawyer Carlos Capulong, BI acting port operations chief, said the hiring and deployment of the new BI officers could not have come at a more opportune time as he cited the steady and continuing increase in the number of passengers who arrive and exit the country daily.
Capulong bared that from only an average daily arrival of 4,000 to 5,000 passengers, when the Philippines re-opened its borders to foreign tourists, the volume increased to 17,000 to 20,000 arrivals per day.
“We foresee a further uptick in our passenger arrivals and departures in the coming weeks as the travel and tourism industry continues to rebound and recover from the negative impact of the pandemic,” Capulong said.
