In the next few months, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) will be deploying at least 100 new immigration officers to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and other major ports across the country.
Chief personnel officer Grifton Medina said the immigration officers will have the rank of immigration officer 1 after they finish their two-month training.
The new recruits began their training at the Philippine Immigration Academy in Clark, Pampanga last week, where they will be taught immigration laws, rules, and procedures.
After finishing the training, the employees will still undergo a month-long on-the-job training at the airports and the BI’s main office.
BI commissioner Jaime Morente directed Medina to ensure that the newly-recruited immigration officers are adequately prepared for their new task.
“Be sure that before they are deployed to the ports, they are adequately prepared and equipped with the knowledge and capability to perform their jobs as gatekeepers of the country,” he pointed out.
The BI Center for Training and Research led by Ronaldo Ledesma and supervisor administrative officer Thelma Guiritan were also told to administer written and oral tests to ascertain if the trainees are “ready to become our country’s gatekeepers.”
Under the training process, all recruited immigration personnel will learn about the immigration laws, rules, and procedures, Morente said.
For his part, BI port operations division chief Marc Red Mariñas said the hiring of the new recruits is timely for the implementation of the government’s rationalization program at the NAIA.
This rationalization scheme involves the shutdown of international flight operations at the NAIA Terminal 2 terminal, which will serve as Manila’s main domestic airport.
All international flights will be at the NAIA Terminals 1 and 3, particularly at the NAIA Terminal 3 where the bulk of the international flights will be relocated.
Mariñas said the BI management information systems division office will be installing additional workstations at the immigration arrival and departure areas of the NAIA Terminal 3.
“This will definitely entail additional manpower in our immigration counters in light of the projected influx of more international travelers, mostly tourists, into our country this year,” he said. With a report from Faye Orellana /kga