BI deploys 100 more personnel to beef up border security

As part of its efforts to strengthen the country’s border security, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said it would deploy 100 additional personnel to the international airports in Manila and Cebu and in four border crossing stations in the South.

In a statement on Wednesday, Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said he issued an order directing 69 immigration officers to report at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and 16 others to the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) where they would perform primary inspection duties.

Morente added that a separate order was issued to 15 immigration officers assigned to man the BI’s Border Crossing Stations in Bongao, Taganak, Balabac, and Batuganding which are situated in Mindanao and Palawan.

“I have instructed them to assume their duties immediately in view of the onset of the peak travel season when the influx of passengers in our airports is expected to surge,” he said.

Morente stressed the need for the BI to continually operate its Border Crossing Stations in the South to foil the exit of human trafficking victims and assist the local authorities in monitoring the possible entry of foreign terrorists through the country’s porous borders.

According to BI OIC Deputy Commissioner and Port Operations Division Chief Marc Red Mariñas, the deployed personnel belonged to the latest batch of the newly-hired Immigration Officers to beef up its presence in different ports nationwide.

He said the BI has already recruited more than 250 new Immigration Officers since the start of the year.

Morente, however, said the number of the Bureau’s Immigration Officers is still far from the ideal number of personnel that it needs to effectively discharge its mandate as the country’s gatekeeper and chief border control agency.

The Immigration chief said studies found that the Bureau needs at least 4,000 additional personnel in order to cope with the ever-increasing volume of international passengers who enter and exit the country.

Presently, the bureau has only 1,852 organic personnel dispersed to the different ports and BI offices nationwide.  /vvp