BI rotates 341 NAIA personnel

Starting Sunday, more than 300 officers of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) will be reporting to their new terminal assignments as part of the agency’s continuing campaign to curb corruption among its personnel.

Atty. Carlos Capulong, BI Acting Port Operations Chief, disclosed that Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente has approved his recommendation to implement the rotation scheme at the premiere port on October 3.

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Capulong said the 341 BI officers to be rotated do not yet include the 99 newly-hired immigration inspectors who are still undergoing on-the-job training at the airport.

After the new recruits have finished their training, they, too, will be dispersed and deployed to the country’s major ports, he added.

“This will be the last rotation of our NAIA personnel this year as the next reshuffle will be implemented during the first quarter of 2022,” Capulong said.

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It was learned that aside from BI officers manning NAIA’s immigration counters, the BI will also rotate the terminal assignments of 77 immigration supervisors assigned at the airport.

Earlier, Morente announced that the Bureau is fast tracking the recruitment of nearly 200 new BI officers who will be deployed to the NAIA and other major ports early next year.

The BI Chief had stressed the need to field more immigration inspectors after the Department of Transportation (DOTr) said it was considering to raise the daily cap on passenger arrival, and reopen other airports to international travel.

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BI rotates 341 NAIA personnel

Morente also said he remains hopeful that international travel will normalize early next year, as the country continues to aggressively pursue its efforts to vaccinate the whole population and achieve herd immunity against Covid-19.

Last week, BI expressed their readiness for the planned increase of the arrivals cap for  passengers to accommodate more returning overseas Filipinos.

In a statement, BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said that he has instructed the BI’s Port Operations Division to conduct an assessment of manpower needed to service the proposed increase of arrivals.

The move comes after the announcement of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) that it plans to increase the arrival cap by exploring alternative gateways to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), Clark International Airport (CIA), and the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA).

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