No Lenten break for immigration personnel

PNA photo

MANILA — Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers assigned at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and other major ports are not allowed to go on leave before, during and after the Holy Week break to ensure that adequate personnel are on hand to serve the traveling public during the holidays.

In a memorandum, BI port operations division Marc Red Mariñas, said that applications for vacation and forced leaves for the period March 20 until April 15 are cancelled.

The directive was issued due to the expected influx and exodus of large numbers of international travelers that always occur during the long Lenten break.

The week before the Lenten break normally sees a rise in number of departing travelers while its aftermath would be characterized by increased passenger arrivals.

For his part, BI Commissioner Jaime Morente noted that if the need arises, they are ready to temporarily deploy to the NAIA and other airports immigration officers currently detailed in other BI offices situated in and outside of Metro Manila.

Also, being considered are the 100 immigration officers presently undergoing Basic Immigration Officer Course at the Philippine Immigration Academy.

With this, the BI chief disclosed that in the past weeks he already issued personnel orders reassigning several immigration officers to the airports in Clark, Mactan, and Kalibo.

The needed manpower augmentation was due to the opening of additional flights in the three airports.