Philippine Immigration

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)