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BI ready for more holiday season travelers
MANILA – Bureau of Immigration (BI) personnel are ready for the influx of passengers during the holiday season, an official said Thursday.
Commissioner Norman Tansingco said he has instructed the Port Operations Division to ensure the presence of adequate manpower to serve arriving and departing passengers.
“We recently attended an immigration forum in Japan, and we were able to discuss with other immigration agencies worldwide that there is really an evident increase in travellers. Many reported long immigration lines in their own countries,” he said in a statement.
The BI chief added that while long lines are inevitable, they are ensuring that passengers are processed expeditiously.
“All counters are manned, and passengers are processed within the 45 second international standard,” he said.
“The e-gates are also operational, and allows decreasing processing time to as low as 8 seconds for Filipinos,” Tansingco added.
On the other hand, Port Operations Division chief Carlos Capulong reported that they are processing around 35,000 daily arrivals and around 29,000 departures for all international airports.
He said the increase in the number of travelers is a sign that worldwide tourism in picking up.
Earlier, the BI reported that frontline personnel are barred from going on leave during the holiday season.