MANILA, Philippines — Saying President Rodrigo Duterte is their only hope, employees of the Bureau of Immigration asked him to let the bureau retain express lane fee collections.
“Our dear president, without your help about 1000 of us or 40 percent of our workforce will automatically lose our jobs and will join the unemployed sector of our country,” the employees said in a statement.
“In behalf of our families and children, we beg for your intervention to hold in abeyance during the transition period the deposit of the express lane fund to the [National Treasury's] general fund until an effective alternative can be implemented to address the issues on (i) automatic displacement of 1,000 BI personnel, (ii) abrupt diminution in the income of BI regular personnel and (iii) BI's failure to effectively and efficiently perform its mandate,” they told the president.
The Bureau of Immigration used to put the express lane fee — paid by foreign tourists to speed up processing — into a trust fund. The money was then used to pay the additional benefits of those who render overtime.
However, Duterte vetoed it in the 2017 national budget saying “there is already funding in the General Appropriations Act for this purpose.”
The employees said the express lane fee has been in place for almost 30 years and has been their source of ultimate compensation. They added that only the passage of the New Immigration Act will answer the deficiencies that the express lanes have effectively addressed.
'Save us from poverty, national security issues'
The BI employees then asked Duterte to change his mind since their families, loved ones and the bureau will face extreme difficulties.
“Since most of us are heads and sole breadwinners of our families, we will be hard pressed to make both or all ends meet,” the employees said.
“With massive lay-off and exodus of personnel, our beloved bureau is on the brink of collapse,” it added.
The BI employees said that the airports, border crossing stations in the south, field offices and subports nationwide will be undermanned or unmanned. They said that will mean long queues and vulnerable borders.
According to the BI employees, the Justice department already confirmed the legal basis for the utilization and disbursement by the bureau of the express lane fund which is Section 7-A of the Commonwealth Act No. 613.
The Department of Justice said that since there is a law which specifically exempts the collections for overtime service from the provisions of sections 63 of Presidential Decree No. 1445, the express lane fees may not be remitted to the national treasury.
Due to the BI mess, Philippine Airlines advised its passengers taking international flights to check in at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 four to five hours before their flight in anticipation of long queues and of delays.
The BI assured the public that it is deploying 170 more personnel to address the problem of long passenger queues in immigration counters at the airports as the Holy Week holiday break approaches.