PHL only has one immigration officer for 1,300 foreigners

The Bureau of Immigration only has one immigration officer for every 1,300 arriving foreigners, Commissioner Siegfred Mison on Thursday told the House Committee on Appropriations during its hearing on the 2016 budget of the Department of Justice and its attached agencies.

Mison made the remark to show the BI's need for funds as he asked Congress to do away with the provision in the proposed General Appropriations Act seeking to require the bureau to deposit express lane fees (ELFs) collected at airports with the National Treasury.

He said having to remit the ELF proceeds to the treasury would hamper its distribution of allowances and overtime pay. so it could continue paying for the overtime pay and allowances of its personnel.

“You can approve something like this if we’re at par with other Asian countries, or we number around 4,000 personnel,” Mison told lawmakers during the hearing.

The National Expenditure Program has set aside P12.8 billion for the DOJ in 2016; P720 million for the BI.

Mison said the BI has been trying its best to fulfill its duties considering that the country has the lowest ratio of immigration officer per arrival of a foreign national in the country.

He said that while the Philippines has one immigration officer per 1,300 foreigners, Indonesia has 1 per 77. Malaysia and Singapore fare even better with 1 immigration officer per 35 and 17 foreign nationals who arrive, respectively.

Mison the ELF is currently deposited in a BI Special Trust Account (STA) and had been the source of the honoraria and allowances of BI employees, particularly its contractual personnel.

“The fund allows the bureau to augment our meager manpower resources to fulfill our duty despite our little workforce,” Mison said.

The proceeds from the ELF, Mison said, pay for the allowances of its 461 contractual employees, which comprise 25 percent of the bureau’s 1,898 total employees.

As of July 3, 2015, the BI only has 1,437 organic employees, far from its ideal 4,000-member workforce.

Commonwealth Act 613

In a letter dated July 14,  2015, sent to Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the removal of the ELF from the BI’s STA will cause the immediate removal of 25 percent of the bureau’s workforce by January 1, 2016.

“This will result [in] a shortage of more than 2,500 personnel or about 65 percent of the needed workforce,” De Lima said.

“With the above numbers, the BI cannot possibly sustain its nationwide operations and effectively and efficiently perform its mandate,” he added.

The ELF has been collected from foreign nationals arriving in the country pursuant to Section 7-A of the Commonwealth Act 613, otherwise known as the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940.

It is deposited in the BI’s STA in accordance with a joint circular issued by the Department of Budget and Management, and the Department of Finance.

The DOJ, Commission on Audit and the Office of the Ombudsman has upheld the legality of sourcing the overtime pay for BI’s employees from the ELF.

Dire consequences

The Immigration Commissioner warned that the immediate approval of the provision on the ELF will have dire consequences for the BI.

“Despite our meager resources, we’ve posted our biggest revenue in years and achieved the most number of deportations. But the approval of this provision [in the proposed GAA] might impair, or cause a gradual collapse, not only of the [employees’] morale but also of the workforce,” he said.

In support of BI’s position, Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, a former immigration commissioner, said the law allowing the collection of the ELF and deposit in the bureau’s account should be upheld until Congress passes a new Immigration Law.

“If Commonwealth Act 613 is removed, the BI will be unable to protect us from external and internal threats. Let’s follow the law until a new Immigration Law is in place,” Rodriguez said. —NB, GMA News