Updating 80-year-old immigration law to solve corruption in BI —commissioner

Passing a new immigration law will be the solution to alleged corruption in the Bureau of Immigration (BI), Commissioner Jaime Morente said Tuesday.

The immigration chief said there are loopholes in the country's existing immigration law, enacted in 1940, that the short-term solution of firing erring personnel cannot fix.

“We can remove people again and again, but the loopholes in the law remain. Quick wins may cure some symptoms in the anti-corruption drive but a responsive new Immigration law may yet cure systemic problems that breed corruption,” Morente said in a statement. 

“The new law, which is already in Congress, will answer salary woes, remove systemic issues, plug loopholes in policies, update fines and penalties, ensure division of power, and confer to the Commissioner the proper disciplinary powers,” he said.

Morente explained that the 80-year-old immigration legislation became law when there were no international flights to and from the Philippines yet. He said many of its provisions are now "outdated" and "inappropriate."

Close to 90 BI officers and officials face criminal complaints over the "pastillas scheme," in which airport immigration personnel allegedly allowed Chinese nationals to enter the country without having them go through immigration procedure in exchange for bribes.

In response to the alleged corruption scheme, the BI said it relieved officers involved in corruption and implemented a one-strike policy against erring personnel.

Morente said this is the first part of his three-tier approach to solve corruption; the medium-term solution, he said, is reorganizing the system and adding layers of checks and balances.

The "real and long-term solution," he added, is the updating of the Philippine Immigration Act.

“We thank our lawmakers for the support in our move to modernize the Bureau, so that once and for all we can rid of systemic issues that remain because of outdated policies,” he said. —KBK, GMA News