Philippine Immigration

MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of Immigration has eased its policy on minors with Filipino lineage who enter the Philippines unaccompanied by their parents.

Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said children “unaccompanied by or not coming to join a parent” are no longer required to seek waivers as long as they arrive with their Filipino grandparents, guardians or relatives.

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THE Bureau of Immigration recently formed the Zamboanga deportation task force to address the growing number of Filipino deportees coming to the city from Sabah, Malaysia.

The creation of the task force was BI Commissioner Marcelino C. Libanan’s response to Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat’s calls asking for more immigration officers to process the Filipino deportees. Reports said that on average, 500 exiles are brought to Zamboanga City every week, on board the commercial vessel M/V Danica Joy 2. On Wednesday alone, 269 illegal Filipino immigrants arrived in Barangay Talon-talon.

“Our job here is to assess their travel documents to determine their true citizenship, because they have been claiming that they were staying in Malaysia for a long period of time,” explained BI Bay Service Section Chief and concurrent taskforce head Jose Carandang Jr., who arrived to Zamboanga City on Wednesday.

The agency is yet to verify Malaysia’s regulations regarding citizenship. Carandang added that a Filipino Consul based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is the one in charge in signing the travel documents of the deportees before embarking on a Philippine-bound vessel.

“The number of deportees is dependent on how many documents the Filipino Consul in Malaysia processed,” said the BI top official. “We are hoping that the Consul will be able to process more deportees soon.”

Carandang said the task force was also created to make it more convenient to the Filipino deportees.

“They went through tough times while working in Malaysia, so we want to make it easier for them when they arrive here in the Philippines,” Carandang explained. “Soon, we will increase and strengthen the agency’s manpower, and add more laptops in the immigration offices in Zamboanga to fast track the processing of their travel documents.” (BI News)

Before hitting the hard-court or getting into any sports action in the country, foreign athletes must secure a special work permit (SWP) first from the Bureau of Immigration (BI).

This was stated in the memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed last Tuesday by BI Commissioner Marcelino Libanan and Games and Amusement Board (GAB) Chairman and former SEA Games medalist Eric Buhain.
According to the MOA: “No foreign professional athlete or player shall participate in any form of professional tournaments and sports competition in the country unless and until he or she obtains the required special work permit from the Bureau and professional license from the GAB.”

Through the MOA, Libanan and Buhain will be working together to ensure that all foreign sportsmen who compete or get an athletic employment in the country have necessary work permits from the BI.

In cases where a foreign athlete claims Philippine citizenship, the MOA also stated that he is required to present a certificate of recognition of Philippine citizenship that was duly affirmed by the Secretary of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

It was also indicated in the MOA that the BI will only issue an SWP to a foreign athlete if his application for such permit has been endorsed by the GAB, the agency that regulates and supervises all professional sports and games in the country.

The applicant is also required to submit a photocopy of his or her passport with a valid authorized stay, and secure a clearance certificate from the BI as proof that he or she has no derogatory record with the bureau.

Moreover, the applicant, through his promoter, must submit his application for an SWP within 24 hours from his arrival in the country or the next working day if he arrives on a weekend.Manuel Ferdinand Arbas, BI technical staff chief, said all foreign athletes are covered by the MOA, including those who play in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

Arbas said the MOA will not affect the existing agreement of the BI with the PBA which similarly requires foreign players in the league to first apply for an SWP with the bureau before shooting hoops in the hard-court. (BI News)

BI Commissioner Marcelino Libanan led the Bureau of Immigration last Wednesday in launching the Mobile Immigration Counters at the Ninoy International Airport (NAIA).

The mobile counters, which are equipped with laptops connected through WiFi, were established by Libanan to process the immigration papers of senior citizens, persons with disabilities (PWDs), and travelers carrying infants.
“The immigration areas are usually packed with travelers during busy hours, making it burdensome for senior citizens, PWDs, and travelers carrying infants to wait on long queues,” Libanan said. “We set up these mobile counters specifically for them to make traveling more convenient, and at the same time decongest traffic in the Immigration areas.”

Libanan, together with NAIA BI chief of airport operations Ferdie Sampol and BI NAIA Terminal 1 supervisor Teody Pascual, unveiled the mobile counters, which are located at strategic areas and manned by immigration personnel.

“We had our pilot run [on Tuesday], and we already received positive feedbacks from the elderly and the disabled,” said Libanan. “Progressive countries like Japan and the US already have this kind of system, and this will definitely make our immigration processing at par with them.”

Also launched during the event was the BI-NAIA Public Assistance Center (BINPAC), which is aimed to make the clearing process even easier for arriving travelers.

“The BINPAC is in charge of assisting passengers who are in need of special accommodation,” said Sampol. “Aside from senior citizens and PWDs, this service will also be catering to those with immediate domestic connections, VIPs, and dignitaries.”

Sampol added that this will complement the Mobile Immigration Counters to finally resolve the congestion at the Immigration area during peak hours. (BI News)

More than 300 foreigners were barred from entering the country during the first six months of the year as a result of the heightened vigilance and stricter screening of passengers by immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Bureau of Immigration (BI) Marcelino Libanan said a total of 308 foreigners were excluded from January to June as the bureau continued to tighten its screening and monitoring of foreigners arriving at the country’s premiere port of entry. He said the BI could not simply lower its guard with the volume of foreigner arrivals at the NAIA reaching more than 3 million during the six-month period, up by seven percent over the 2.8 million who came in the same period last year.

Libanan said most of the foreign visitors who were turned back were caught using spurious travel documents, adding that most of passengers were victims of syndicates using Manila as transit point for their human trafficking operations.

“I have already directed that they be placed in our blacklist so that they will not be able to return to our country in the future,” Libanan said, even as he commended immigration officers at the NAIA for a job well done.

The BI chief stressed that it is now difficult for illegal foreigners to slip through the NAIA unmolested as a result of the continous trainining of immigration officers who are now more adept in detecting fraudulent travel documents.

He said the task of screening and profiling foreigners at the NAIA is not only performed by BI personnel at the counters but also by members of the migration compliance and monitoring group (MCMG), a team which double checks the documents of passengers with suspicious profiles.

Libanan also said that a BI anti-fraud unit is in place at the NAIA whose members are capable and trained in the art of detecting bogus and tampered passports and visas.

Statistics from the NAIA immigration office showed that 120 of the excluded passengers were not properly documented while 97 others were profiled as likely to become public charges.

“A foreigner is deemed a public charge if he could not explain his purpose in coming to the country and if he is unable to show proof of his capacity to support his stay in the Philippines,” said NAIA-BI operations chief Ferdinand Sampol.

Also included in the list are 62 blacklisted aliens who were foiled in their attempt to slip back into the country.

There were also 16 passengers who have no entry visas; 10 had no return tickets; and three who have been previously turned back at the airport.

A breakdown of their nationality showed that 45 South Koreans and 43 Chinese topped the list, followed by 22 Japanese, 22 Americans, 21 Taiwanese, 20 Nigerians, 18 Ghanians, 16 Indians, and 12 Liberians. (BI News)

MANILA, Philippines—Foreign athletes need special work permits before they can play in any sports tournaments in the Philippines, the Bureau of Immigration and the Games and Amusement Board said Friday.

BI Commissioner Marcelino Libanan and GAB chairman Eric Buhain signed a memorandum of agreement that provides that "no foreign professional athlete or player shall participate in any form of professional tournaments and sports competition in the country unless and until he or she obtains the required special work permit from the bureau and professional license from the GAB."

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Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan created the task force in response to Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat’s calls for more immigration officers to process the documents for the Filipino deportees.

Task force head Jose Carandang Jr., concurrent chief of Immigration’s bay service section, said that after the tough times the workers went through in Malaysia, “we want to make it easier for them when they arrive here in the Philippines.”

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MANILA, Philippines - Senior citizens, persons with disabilities (PWDs) and travelers carrying infants need not to wait on long queues for their immigration papers to be processed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said the agency has already set up a mobile counters at the NAIA that would solely entertain senior citizens, persons with disabilities (PWDs) and travelers carrying infants to facilitate the processing of their traveling documents when leaving the country.

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The Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Wednesday said that cellular phones will soon be banned in areas around immigration counters at the country's international airports.

BI Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said that the measure is in line with the plan to jam mobile phone signals as a security measure.

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MANILA, Philippines -- The Bureau of Immigration (BI) barred more than 300 foreigners from entering the country during the first six months of the year as part of the agency’s campaign against human smuggling.

Immigration commissioner Marcelino Libanan said most of the aliens who were turned back were caught using spurious travel documents and that most of them were victims of syndicates using Manila as a transit point for their human trafficking operations.

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CLARK FREEPORT -- The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has implemented a tighter screening process following reports of human smuggling at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA).

With this, the bureau reported that it has already rejected the entry of 37 foreigners with bogus travel documents in the first semester of the year.

Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said from January to June this year, a total of 37 aliens were rejected entry and sent back home.

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Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Marcelino Libanan ordered yesterday that there will be no more lunch breaks for officials and employees at the bureau’s main office in Intramuros to further reduce the processing time for the granting of visas and visa extensions.

Libanan said immigration employees will instead take turns between manning the receiving windows and other frontline services and having their lunch to ensure that the bureau’s offices remain open during their noon break from 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. The new no-lunch break policy will further speed up the processing time for the processing of visas and visa extensions as well as for other documents issued by the bureau.

Libanan’s reforms at the bureau such as the Visa Issuance Made Simple (VIMS) and the Pre-Arranged Visa Upon Arrival (VUA) programs have expedited the processing of BI documents and cut red tape.

The schemes resulted in shorter and more efficient processing of visas and visa extensions as shown by the feedbacks sent through email by the transacting public and curbed corruption.

The online feedback system through email has recently received commendations from the transacting public who cited the professionalism and efficiency of the bureau’s staff and the reforms that streamlined the processing of documents.

With the new policies in place, the bureau has trimmed down documentary requirements by 43 percent, and reduced the processing time by 82 percent..

It used to be that applications for visa extensions can take 15 to 50 days to finish. Now applications filed in the morning can be approved and released in the afternoon.

The new policy of no lunch breaks is expected to further cut the already shorter processing time at the bureau from less than a day to a mere several hours. (BI News)

Immigration officers at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) barred from entering the country during the first semester 37 foreigners who attempted to slip into the country with bogus travel documents via the former US air base in Clark Field, Pampanga.

Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said covering from the period of January to June, the 37 aliens were turned back as a result of the increased vigilance of immigration personnel at the DMIA who were alerted over reports that human trafficking syndicates are intending to use Clark as the next transit point for their operations.
The reports had also indicated that illegal recruitment syndicates were trying to use the Clark airport in facilitating the departure of “tourist workers,” or undocumented overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) disguised as tourists.

Libanan said he was alarmed by the reports that ordered the immediate deployment of additional personnel to the DMIA and that screening procedures for both arriving and departing passengers be tightened.

Earlier, the BI chief bared that some 864 passengers suspected of being “tourist workers” were barred from leaving Clark from January to May on suspicion of being “tourist workers.”

In his report to Libanan, Romeo Dime, DMIA immigration head supervisor Romeo Dime said most of the excluded foreigners were caught using spurious documents in trying to enter the country.

Dime said most of the passengers arrived from Malaysia and their travel itinerary showed that they intended to proceed to other foreign destinations after a brief stay in the country.

“They were unable to explain their purpose in coming to the Philippines for which reason they were denied entry and booked on the first available flight to their port of origin,” Dime said.

All of them were placed in the BI blacklist of undesirable foreigners and banned from re-entering the Philippines.

Those excluded include seven Indians, six Nigerians, four Bulgarians, three Sri Lankans, three Taiwanese, two Koreans, two Singaporeans, a Sudanese, a Japanese, a Malaysian, a Botswanan, a Liberian, and an Albanian. (BI News)

Immigration officers at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) barred 37 aliens from entering the country during the first semester for attempting to slip into the country with bogus travel documents via the former United States air base in Clark Field, Pampanga.

Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said covering from the period of January to June, the 37 aliens were turned back as a result of the increased vigilance of immigration personnel at the DMIA who were alerted over reports that human trafficking syndicates are intending to use Clark as the next transit point for their operations.

Continue on Tempo

Philippine immigration laws are vintage 1940s and restrictive in many ways but could be in tune with globalization if an updated immigration bill which he crafted as a former legislator is passed, Immigration chief Marcelino Libanan asserted recently.

Despite the restrictions, which also accounts for the difficulty in smoothly implementing the rules of the Bureau of Immigration (BI), the agency has been faring well since he was appointed to the post by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in May last year.

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In an effort to rid the country’s key entry points of drug trafficking incidents, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Bureau of Immigration (BI) recently signed a memorandum of agreement for an intensified joint monitoring undertaking against suspected drug traffickers using international and local airports as transit points.

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Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan ordered yesterday that there will be no more lunch break for officials and employees at the bureau’s main office in Intramuros to further reduce the processing time for the granting of visas and visa extensions.

This developed as the Bureau of Immigration’s Visa Issuance Made Simple (VIMS) is reaping plaudits from the transacting public along with its 24/7 nerve center.

Continue on Tempo

MANILA, Philippines - There will be no need for applicants for visas and visa extensions to wait between 12 noon to 1 p.m. to receive accommodation from immigration employees.

This was after the Bureau of Immigration (BI), under the leadership of Commissioner Marcelino Libanan, implemented a “no lunch break” policy for all officials and employees of the bureau.

Libanan said the new policy aims to further reduce the processing time for granting of visas and visa extensions.

Continue on GMA News

Related News:

• No more lunch breaks at the immigration office - Philippine Daily Inquirer

Immigration officers at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) have barred a total of 864 passengers from leaving the country on suspicion of being “tourist workers” or undocumented overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) disguised as tourists, it was learned yesterday.

In his report to Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Marcelino Libanan, Romeo Dime, BI’s regional director at DMAI, disclosed that most of the OFWs were offloaded for not having the required clearances from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) although their purpose in going abroad is to work.

“Most of them presented bogus documents such as fake letters of invitation or affidavits of support from their alleged friends and relatives in the countries where they intended to go and work,” Dime said.

He added that nearly all of the OFWs were bound for Malaysia and are believed to be victims of illegal recruitment syndicates.

Libanan issued an order to immigration officers at the DMIA to be always vigilant and implement the ban on the departure of undocumented OFWs.

Libanan said was alarmed by reports that the former Clark Air Base was being used by illegal recruiters and human traffickers as the major exit point for their victims.

He also cited reports that some of these illegal recruitment victims end up as prostitutes or become victims of abuse in their countries of destination.

“We shall continue to tighten our watch in DMIA to protect our OFWs, especially our women, from harm’s way,” Libanan said.

Last week, a composite team of policemen and BI operatives led by Vice President Noli de Castro intercepted five women before they could board their flight to Kuala Lumpur.

The women later admitted upon questioning that they were were going to work as domestic helpers in Malaysia and that they are not tourists as they initially claimed.

It was gathered that the operation was carried after informants tipped authorities about the scheduled flight of the women who were allegedly hired by illegal recruiters. (BI News)

The Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) has lauded the Bureau of Immigration (BI) for successfully combating corruption, cutting red tape and improving the quality of its services to the public.

In a speech delivered at the 2nd Quarter Integrity Development Action Plan (IDAP) conference held in Malacañang recently, PACG Chair Constancia De Guzman hailed the BI’s success in instituting programs that helped curb corruption and enhanced the integrity of the bureau.
De Guzman thus congratulated BI Commissioner Marcelino Libanan for his accomplishments as it was under his stewardship that the bureau landed in seventh place of the PAGC’s top 10 list of most compliant government agencies.

In 2005, the BI was in 76th place or in the fifth bottom of the said list that comprises 81 government agencies.

De Guzman cited the launching BI’s visa-issuance-made-simple (VIMS), Libanan’s flagship project, which reduced the processing time for visa applications at the bureau by an average of 58 percent.

She noted that as a result of the VIMS, person-to-person transactions at the BI were cut by at least 50 percent thereby cutting red tape by the same percentage.

BI Associate Commissioner Roy Almoro, who chairs the bureaus composite committee on good government (CCGG), described how the VIMS was painstakingly introduced for adoption to the BI employees and stakeholders but it yielded positive results in the long run.

Almoro also reported that the BI will soon implement in its regional and field offices the performance management system – office performance evaluation system (PMS-OPES) of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) where the bureau is currently ranked first in the area of enforcement of a code of conduct for its workers and in evaluating their performance.

The PAGC chief included the BI in her assessment of the reports submitted by heads and officials of 80 government agencies who attended the conference held last July 7 at Malacañang’s Mabini Hall.

Aside from the BI, the Department of Science and Technology, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Department of Finance, and National Housing Authority are also in PAGC’s list of 10 most compliant agencies. (BI News)

MORE than 850 passengers at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) in Pampanga were barred from leaving the country on suspicion of being “tourist workers,” the Bureau of Immigration said on Saturday.

According to a report received by Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan, 864 passengers were offloaded for lacking required clearances from the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA).

Immigration Regional Director Romeo Dime said the offloaded passengers had failed to secure the POEA clearances although their purpose for leaving was to work abroad.

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In a Value for Money Audit done by the Commission on Audit for the government operations last year, the Bureau of Immigration was cited for the speedy disposition of detainees’ cases resulting in the dramatic decline in the number of detainees at the BI detention center in Bicutan, Taguig City.

In a report to Congress on its audit of operations of all government agencies, the COA cited BI’s success in reducing the number of detainees at the Bicutan detention center as “notable efforts of decongesting the BI Detention Center thru fast and rational resolution of cases.”

“This resulted in the reduction of expenses even as it eased the agony of waiting on the part of detainees,” the COA report added.

“Considering the short period the program was implemented that started in midway of 2007, the bureau accomplished a major task that is worth a commendation,” Reynaldo Villar, COA Chairman, said.

The COA cited the decrease in the number of detained aliens by 76 percent as of December 31, 2007 as proof that the decongestion program of the bureau through disposition of cases was effectively implemented.

The report also said that at the beginning of 2007, a total of 411 detainees were housed inside the facility but 314 cases were acted upon with dispatch.. 97 of these cases were dismissed, 109 foreigners were deported, 44 were placed under recognizance, 61 aliens were allowed to post bail, and 3 were transferred.

“We recommended that the bureau continue its notable efforts of decongesting the BI Detention Center thru fast and rational resolution of pending cases in order to reduce expenses and ease the agony of waiting on the part of the detainees,” COA report added.

Last May 2008, only 96 aliens were in detention at the Bicutan jail. (BI News)

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Monday reported that it has posted a record income as it breached its billion-peso target for the first six months of the year.

In a statement, Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said the agency’s revenue has totaled to P1.015 billion from January to June – the first time in history that the agency’s first semester income exceeded the billion-peso mark.

Libanan said the revenue in the first half of the year was P269.7-million or 36-percent more than the targetted P745.7 million for the period, and P204.8-million or 25-percent higher than the P810.4 million earned in the same period last year.

Continue on GMA News

Related News:

• Immigration revenue hit billion peso mark - Sun Star
• BI income tops P1 B mark in first semester - Tempo

On his latest column, "On Target", Ramon Tulfo thanked Commissioner Marcelino Libanan for granting his request to release a Belgian national:

I’d like to thank Immigration Commissioner Marcelo Libanan for ordering the release, upon my request, of Belgian national Lucas Saeren.

Saeren’s Filipino wife, Rowena de la Cruz-Saeren came to us at “Isumbong mo kay Tulfo” asking my intercession for his release from the immigration jail.

Saeren has been in the immigration jail for five years.

His crime?

Overstaying.

Saeren’s release papers are now being processed.

Since he took over as immigration commissioner, Libanan has unclogged the overcrowded immigration jail in Bicutan by releasing foreigner-inmates who didn’t commit major crimes.

He also has looked after the welfare of inmates by giving medicines for the jail clinic and hiring an in-house doctor.

Libanan complains about the uncaring attitude of some embassies in the country that don’t send representatives to the immigration jail to inquire about the condition of their nationals.

(Source: On Target, Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines -- Woo the mother and abuse the child.

This is the new modus operandi of pedophiles who have been targeting Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, as their area of operation, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) has warned.

“The child molesters usually meet the mothers, sometimes even the grandmothers, of possible victims online and make them their girlfriends,” BI Commissioner Marcelino Libanan told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Monday.

The women usually let the economically better-off foreigners into their lives and their homes, not knowing that the men would later pounce on their young daughters or sons.

Continue on Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines -- Authorities have arrested a Singaporean man suspected of being a courier for a human trafficking ring at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said R. Murliy, a Singaporean, was apprehended by Bureau of Immigration officers as he was about to board a Canada-bound flight with a Sri Lankan identified as Vignesvaran Saravanan on June 27.

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Two foreigners have been arrested by immigration authorities at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) for alleged human trafficking, the Bureau of Immigration said Saturday.

BI Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said Singaporean R. Murliy and Sri Lankan Vignesvaran Saravanan have been accosted at the NAIA 2 centennial terminal on June 27 as they were about to board a Philippine Airlines flight to Vancouver.

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MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Immigration has deported a Jordanian national allegedly involved in a plan to bomb the embassies of the US and three other countries in Manila.

In a statement released Thursday, Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said Moh'd Armo was flown to Bangkok on Monday night where he was transferred to a connecting flight of the Royal Jordanian Airlines bound for Amman.

Continue on GMA News

Related News:

• Terror suspect deported - Sun Star Manila
• Jordanian terrorist idineport ng BI - Philippine Star
• BI deports Jordanian terrorist - BI News