Immigration bureau on alert for passenger influx during Holy Week

MANILA – The Bureau of Immigration (BI) is on heightened alert as it anticipates a daily arrival of at least 13,000 passengers this month and more between Palm and Easter Sundays.

BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said all airports and seaports are properly manned.

“Historically, the number of passengers rises during the Holy week and other such long breaks,” he said in a statement on a Saturday. “This year as the country re-opens its borders, we expect that the numbers will again rise.”

BI statistics showed that passenger arrivals at airports now average between 13,000 to 15,000 daily since a week ago, compared to 6,000 to 9,000 last month.

The country started accepting fully vaccinated leisure tourists in February, with the Department of Tourism noting 202,700 arrivals as of April 7.

“We’ve made sure that our personnel are on full force to ensure smooth and efficient processing of passengers,” Morente added.

Port Operations Division chief, lawyer Carlos Capulong, said BI’s electronic gates are fully operational for the peak season.

The process will allow digital processing of arrivals for as fast as eight seconds per passenger.

Roman Catholics will mark Palm Sunday on April 10 with the waving of palm fronds or young coconut leaves woven into “palaspas” after the Mass to remember Jesus Christ’s entry into Jerusalem.

Holy Thursday to Black Saturday (April 14 to 16) are official holidays.