Senators slam BI over ‘ridiculous’ immigration requirements, ‘arbitrary’ offloading policies at NAIA

Three senators blasted the Bureau of Immigration on Monday over what they call “ridiculous” immigration requirements and “arbitrary” offloading policies that end up unfairly denying Filipino passengers their constitutionally guaranteed right to travel.

At the hearing of the Senate blue ribbon committee investigating alleged human smuggling at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), Senator Erwin Tulfo said he has been receiving many complaints from Filipino travelers regarding immigration requirements at the airport.

According to Tulfo, travelers have complained about some immigration personnel allegedly asking for school records like a yearbook, diploma, transcript of records, bank statements, health certificates and even barangay clearance.

Those who could not produce the documents were humiliated and offloaded. This, he said, was in stark contrast to IOs’ special treatment of foreign nationals who have “grease money.”

“At noong hindi makapag produce ang mga kabayan natin ng mga hinihinging dokumento, pinahiya at in-offload. Samantalang pag foreign nationals, walang screening na nagaganap, ini-eskortan pa papasok ng eroplano,” he said.

“Bakit? Dahil itong mga foreign nationals may pera, may panlagay, at itong mga pobre nating kababayan na tax payers na nagpapasweldo sa ating mga taga gobyerno haharangin at papahiyain at hindi papasakayin sa eroplano?” he elaborated.

Meanwhile, Senator Grace Poe brought up the case of Filipina lifestyle vlogger Cham Tanteras who claims that she missed her flight due to a lengthy secondary screening by an IO who had asked her irrelevant questions and demanded unnecessary documents like a yearbook and graduation photo.

“Meron tayong mga overly enthusiastic immigration officers na kung ano-ano yung mga tinatanong, ano-ano yung mga dokumentong hinihingi. Ewan ko kung yung immigration officer na yun, napag tripan lang yung isang pasahero kaya hiningan ng yearbook o graduation photos. Ridiculous,” Poe said.

“We’re trying to avoid human trafficking but this is obviously frivolous,” she added.

BI Commissioner Noman Tansingco explained that the bureau is already in the process of implementing some reforms, to which Poe replied: “Baka naman pwede expedite na kasi allergic tayo sa we will study, kasi minsan it will take forever.”

“Starting today, we have retraining of our supervisors and we will be conducting also pocket trainings while at the airport. And we are reviewing also the shifting schedule of our Immigration Officers so that in case of peak hours, we have 100 percent capacity in our counters,” Tansingco said.

The BI commissioner also told the committee that he has requested that some BI regular employees be designated as acting IOs for additional manpower.

For his part, Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Jr. took the BI to task for its “arbitrary” offloading policies, which he said represent a brazen disregard of the constitutionally guaranteed right to travel.

Revilla said his office has received numerous concerns and complaints about the prevalence of arbitrary offloading at NAIA, and was in the process of investigating the matter when the offloading case of Tanteras went viral.

“Tinitingnan na namin ito since last year, at eto at pumutok na. Mismong kaibigan ni Congressman Bryan Revilla na papasyal lang sa Singapore twice inoffload despite our correspondence with BI,” he shared. “Ang katwiran ng BI, iba raw yung nasa legal at head office nila sa mga nasa airport. Wala daw silang control sa mga nasa airport. Tama ba ‘yun?,” he asked.

Revilla criticized the BI’s existing offloading practices saying that while the spirit behind it may be noble, the results speak for itself. “Sa pagkakataong ito, it looks like the solution being implemented is worse than the problem,” the solon said.

According to the BI, of the 32,404 Filipinos offloaded in 2022, only 472 were related to human trafficking, 873 allegedly misrepresented themselves, while 10 were minors.

“Sa lagpas 30,000 na inoffload at inabala ng immigration na yan, wala pang 4.2% niyan ang may semblance of basis. Mas nakakagalit, only 1.45% ang sinasabi nilang connected sa Human Trafficking,” Revilla pointed out. “Over 95% talagang inabala at pinagastos lang. Ibig sabihin, isa lang sa bawat dalawampung inoffload nila ang medyo may basis. ‘Di ba kalokohan ‘yan?,” the lawmaker stressed. “Sobrang daming naabala. Sobrang daming nasayang na oras at pera. This really says something about the accuracy and efficiency of their [Bureau of Immigration] performance.”

“Anong nangyayayari sa Bureau of Immigration? Nakakahiya! Hindi ganyang klase ng serbisyo publiko ang dapat natatanggap ng mga tao. Ngayon kasi, para bang all Filipinos are human traffickers unless proven otherwise! Bakit niyo hahanapan ng yearbook? Bakit niyo hahanapan ng graduation photo? Hindi ko maisip para saan. Our people deserve to be treated better, if not fairly. Kaya kung hindi niyo matutuwid iyang di matapos-tapos na kalokohan niyo, mag-resign na lang kayo!”, Revilla said in disappointment.

The senator believes that the BI practice is a brazen disregard of the constitutionally guaranteed right to travel, explaining that it may even be an outright transgression on the power of the Courts to issue Hold Departure Orders (HDO) upon cause. “Parang daig pa nila ang korte. Napaka-absurd yata na yung nakagawa ng krimen, basta’t walang HDO makakaalis, pero yung mga ordinaryong Pilipino na gusto lang makaranas ng bakasyon sa ibang bansa, basta-basta lang iniipit at hindi pinaaalis. Over-stepping na yan,” he added.

The practice of offloading continues despite existing rules laid down by the Department of Justice’ Memorandum Circular No. 036, s. 2015 that promulgated revised guidelines on Departure Formalities for International-Bound Passengers. The circular provides that only when a tourist passenger is identified by the immigration officer to have doubtful purpose of travel, fraudulent, falsified or tampered travel documents, or identified as a potentially trafficked person may he/she be not cleared for departure or recommended for deferred departure and turned over to the Travel Control and Enforcement Unit. The issuance also states that “[a]s much as practicable, secondary inspection shall not exceed 10 minutes unless extraordinary circumstances require a longer period of inspection”.

“This is obviously being abused. Napakalaki ng latitude being given to these IOs. Sobrang broad ng authority at ng discretion. Daig pa nila mga consul sa pag-iissue ng visa,” Revilla ended.