Morente: No holiday season leave for BI personnel

THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Wednesday said it would not allow its personnel assigned in various international airports to go on leave starting December 1, 2020 until January 15, 2021.

BI Commissioner Jaime Morente justified the policy, saying that it is necessary to ensure sufficient number of immigration officers on duty to attend to traveling public during the Christmas holiday season.

“We have to make sure that our immigration booths at the airports are adequately manned in anticipation of an increase in the number of international travelers who will enter and exit the country during that period,” Morente said.

Morente, however, acknowledged that the agency does not expect a huge increase in the number of passengers arriving and leaving the country during the holiday season due to the threat of Covid-19.

He noted that many countries have yet to lift their travel restrictions that have been imposed since the start of the pandemic early this year.

“Thus, we are confident that the number of immigration officers currently deployed at the ports are enough to facilitate the efficient conduct of immigration formalities for arriving and departing passengers,” Morente said.

Lawyer Candy Tan, BI port operations division chief, said the leave prohibition applies to all immigration personnel assigned at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport as well as the airports in Mactan, Cebu and Clark, Pampanga, Kalibo, Iloilo, Davao, Laoag and the Zamboanga international seaport.

During this period, the BI will not accept applications for leave, or authority to travel abroad, by any of the said BI port employees.