BI orders mandatory COVID tests for 3,000 employees

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has ordered more than 3,000 officials and employees nationwide to undergo mandatory rapid testing for the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19.

Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente issued the directive after the BI central office in Intramuros, Manila was closed for disinfection on Monday when an employee tested positivie for the virus.

Morente said employees who refused to be tested would not be allowed to work.

“We decided to make the rapid testing compulsory for all BI personnel to safeguard their health as well as the people who transact business with the agency,” he said.

Immigration employees outside Metro Manila were advised to coordinate with local government units to get free COVID-19 tests for frontliners.

Morente said accredited liaison officers as well as representatives of travel agencies and law offices need to undergo rapid testing before transacting business with the BI.

“They will not be allowed to enter the BI offices if they refuse to comply with the mandatory testing,” he said.

BI acting spokesman Melvin Mabulac said only about a third of the agency’s 3,157 employees were tested in voluntary rapid testing previously held at the main office, Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and the BI detention facility at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig.

Mabulac said another round of COVID-19 testing for immigration personnel at the NAIA and BI’s satellite offices in Manila would be conducted in the next few days.