Employees of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) are not allowed to take vacation leaves this month.
In a statement, BI Commissioner Jaime Morente has ordered the cancellation of all approved leave applications of employees for April.
“Pending and would-be filed leave applications will also be disapproved,” he said.
The move by the BI is to augment the BI personnel in all ports particularly in airports this coming Lenten break.
The BI also deployed 170 of its employees to assist immigration processing of arriving and departing international passengers.
The BI is hoping that this move will address the problem of long passenger queues in immigration counters at the airports as the Holy Week holiday break approaches.
The BI is suffering from shortage of personnel due to mass exodus over unpaid overtime.