Immigration Bureau asks salary upgrade (1)
THE express lane fee that are charged foreigners in exchange for the speedy processing of their permits is a legacy of then Immigration Commissioner Miriam Defensor Santiago.
It was she who allowed part of this fee, deposited in a trust fund, to finance the overtime pay of Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers and augment their take-home pay or what they had left after deductions were made, including the unavoidable tax.
She knew that this additional income to her employees would enable them to subsist without resorting to under-the-table deals and other shenanigans, simply to make body and soul intact.
However, the Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC) opposed this fee. The group told the House and Senate Committees on Justice that the proposed Immigration Act, now in Congress, should not include a provision to authorize the charging of overtime fees against airline companies and shippers.
The JFC has urged lawmakers to delete the section that authorizes the Immigration Commissioner to assign immigration employees “to do overtime work or services to be prescribed at rates fixed by the Commissioner of Immigration when the service rendered is to be paid for by the airline, shipping companies, or other persons served.”
The group has further asked lawmakers to remove the authority of the Bureau of Immigration to “allocate a percentage share from its income generated to pay for 24/7 operations and to include any overtime payments in its annual budget.”
The modernization of immigration services, the JFC said, would enable the government to match the 24/7 operations of international airlines.
“The practice of charging overtime fees, meals, and transportation allowances to international airlines should now be removed and replaced with one where services provided by BI personnel is shouldered by its employer, the government,” JFC said.
“The objective of the bill is to make immigration services more enabling to promote tourism and commerce. We believe these efforts will help make the Philippine tourism and retirement industries more competitive with the rest of our ASEAN neighbors and help the country grow twice as fast as recommended in Arangkada Philippines 2010,” the JFC said. (To be continued)