SEAMLESS PROCESSING

Notwithstanding the long queues at the NAIA and stricter travel rules, the Bureau of Immigration stands pat on its promise to hasten the processing of travelers within 45 seconds.

The affirmation, according to BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco, is highly doable and feasible as can be seen from the agency’s performance indicator. 

“One of the output indicators of the BI is the 99 percentage of entry and exits processed upon primary inspection within 45 seconds. The said performance indicator was committed by the agency since 2016 in reference to the Guidelines on Advance passenger Information published jointly by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) stating that manual keying of Advance Passenger Information (AAPI) data from an official travel document takes approximately 45 seconds per passenger.”

“The scope of the committed performance indicator is from the scanning of the presented travel document of the traveler, the manual keying of the API data until the submission of the Immigration Officer (IO) to the Border Control Information System (BCIS) for derogatory records checking,” Tansingco added.

Seamless processing

More so, not just relying on the committed performance indicator, the workability of a 45-seconds processing is complemented by BI’s comprehensive IT infrastructure development. 

“The Bureau endeavors to undertake various IT programs, activities, and projects (PAP) consistent with the approved Information Systems Strategic Plan (ISSP) of the BI for 2024-2026. This includes the installation of Electronic Gates (E-Gates) nationwide to further promote seamless immigration processing at international ports of entry and exit (IPEE),” Tansingco said.

“The programs, activities, and projects or PAP is a mechanism of the agency to address the perennial problem of long queues in international ports. With the actual size and structural limitations of ports and succeeding scheduling of flights, the agency intends to decongest queues through the utilization of E-Gates with additional targeted users,” Tansingco added.

Upgrading structure

In addition, Tansingco also cited the agency’s recently implemented E-Travel System. 

“Noteworthy to mention also was the implementation of the Electronic-Travel system or Electronic Arrival and Departure Cards which serves as a single data collection platform for purposes of establishing an integrated border control, health surveillance, and economic data analysis. Automation of arrival and departure card was implemented last 05December 2022 and 01 May 2023, respectively.”

In the face of these IT infrastructure and facilities upgrading, Tansingco reasoned out that BI’s budget request of P4.24 billion for 2024 is but justified as said advanced tools and technologies or infrastructure resources would certainly be costly.

Added to this, Tansingco continued, is the agency’s modernization program as contained in the immigration modernization bill, which President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. tagged as one of his priority enactments for Congress during his second SONA.

Best, worst airports

NAIA was recently tagged as 8th among the 10 worst airports in Asia.

In a study done by Casago, an international vacation rental management firm, NAIA got only 18.11 percent approval rating from passenger-respondents. 

The worst was Kuwait International Airport with 11.11 percent making is the worst in terms of waiting.

Changi International Airport in Singapore is considered one with the smoothest experience for passengers, given a 74.7 percent approval. It is no wonder that Changi has consistently been the “World’s Best airport” aside from being the cleanest.

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