More passengers troop to NAIA ahead of Holy Week

A few days before the Holy Week, the volume of passengers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport has started to increase, a report on Unang Balita on Thursday said.

At the NAIA Terminal 3, there was already a long queue to get in before 6 a.m., GMA News' Victoria Tulad reported.

Brace yourself for long lines at NAIA Terminal 3; more passengers bound for the provinces this Holy Week break. @gmanews pic.twitter.com/QB34AUeKbX

— Victoria Tulad (@victoriatulad) April 5, 2017

More passengers are expected to go to the airport in the coming days for the Holy Week break.

To address this, Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Jaime Morente ordered that more Immigration officers be assigned at NAIA and other international airports.

Many employees went on leave or resigned recently as a result of President Rodrigo Duterte's order to stop the payment of their overtime work. 

This led to longer queues at the airport as the lean Immigration staff on duty tried to cope with the volume of passengers.

Morente ordered that 150 Immigration officers from the main office and other field offices of the BI be assigned to NAIA.

Twenty Immigration officers from Pampanga, Davao, Aklan, and Cebu, meanwhile, will be assigned to Clark, Davao, Kalibo, and Mactan airports.

After the Holy Week, the reassigned Immigration officers will have to go back to their original assignments.

Morente also canceled the leaves of Immigration officers for the month of April. —KG, GMA News