Incoming BI commissioner urged: Rationalize vetting of outbound passengers

SENATE President Francis Escudero yesterday urged the incoming Immigration commissioner to speed up the reimbursement of the expenses incurred by thousands of offloaded passengers due to unnecessary delays brought about by the pre-departure procedures of the Bureau of Immigration (BI).

“’Ber’ months na, pero ni isang kusing wala pa ring nabayaran sa kahit isang paseherong naperwisyo. Ang bilis mag-offload, ang bagal naman mag-download ng reimbursement (We are now in the ‘ber’ months but not a single centavo has been paid to passengers adversely affected. They are fast to offload passengers but slow in downloading reimbursements),” Escudero said.

Escudero has introduced a special provision in the 2024 General Appropriations Act that mandated the reimbursement of passengers left behind by their flights after being subjected to lengthy interrogation by immigration personnel for one reason or another.

The funds will be drawn from the unutilized collections of the BI that are returned to the Bureau of Treasury.

Despite the “clear instructions” of the GAA, Escudero said the agencies involved in its implementation are seemingly dragging their feet on the matter as guidelines have yet to be issued.

He said this delay “will surely hound the BI” if non-payment remains unresolved by the time the Senate starts its plenary debates on the 2025 national budget in November.

“In the guise of fighting human trafficking, many have been unfairly and arbitrarily denied their right to travel, their fate at the hands of ‘gods’ at the airport gate,” Escudero said.

In 2022 alone, 32,404 Filipino passengers were not allowed to proceed with their flights. Out of the total, only 472 were found to be victims of human trafficking or illegal recruitment.

Escudero said many of the offloaded passengers ended up incurring additional expenses for rebooking their flights, hotel reservations, and food.

“I have personally heard of the plight of OFWs returning to their legal jobs abroad with little money left in their pockets—with some becoming instant refugees in their own land because some of their countrymen deemed them unfit for travel,” he said.

He said this kind of profiling, which requires a