MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Immigration (BI) will purge from its records unnecessary and obsolete watchlist orders to update and sanitize its computer database and derogatory files.

A memorandum order issued recently by Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan directed the automatic lifting or cancellation of watchlist orders which are at least five years old.

In a press statement, the bureau said the five-year rule, however, applied only to watchlist orders issued on orders of regular courts or on the request of other government agencies or private offended parties.

“Watchlist orders issued by the BI against foreigners in the exercise of its inherent power as chief enforcer of the country’s immigration laws shall continue to remain in the bureau’s derogatory records unless ordered removed by the BI commissioner or duly-authorized associate commissioner,” Libanan said in his order.

Libanan also ruled that the lifting of watchlist orders against persons, who have also been issued hold departure orders (HDOs), should not affect the said HDOs, which should remain in the bureau’s derogatory records.

Only the commissioner or duly-authorized associate commissioner may order the deletion of any HDO issued against any person, the memorandum order said.

Lawyer Arvin Santos, chairman of the special committee on the bureau’s derogatory system, was instructed to ‘‘oversee the immediate actual implementation of the lifting, purging and deletion of the concerned watchlist orders.”

Santos said the purge was necessary so as not to further inconvenience Filipino and foreign travelers, who were prevented from leaving the country because of old watchlist orders that have become obsolete.

He added that in most cases, no civil or criminal complaints were filed in court against persons, who were subject of unnecessary watchlist orders.
Santos explained that watchlist orders were usually issued only for purposes of monitoring a person’s travel in and out of the country and not to violate his constitutional right to travel.

He also pointed out that the Department of Justice last year issued a directive, which provides that watchlist orders should remain valid for only 60 days, unless extended, in order to safeguard the individual’s right to travel.