The Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Tuesday said it is high time to implement expansion at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to cater to a bigger immigration area amid the influx of international passengers. In a statement, BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said both the NAIA Terminals 1 and 3 have been serving an "unprecedented" number of foreign travelers. 'We have added more immigration officers to service travelers. Now we see more immigration officers on duty than installed counters,' he said. As an initial resolve, Tansingco cited the deployment of 59 additional immigration officers at NAIA Terminals 1 and 3. Eight mobile counters were also provided in each terminal to help ease long immigration lines. As of June 16, records showed a 48.1 percent influx of terminal passengers per day at NAIA Terminal 1. This is equivalent to 28,956 passengers, higher than the previous 19,553 average passengers per day. The NAIA Terminal 3 also increased its daily average passengers to 33,682, or 19.58 percent higher than the previous average of 28,168 passengers. "Each shift of BI officers at the NAIA Terminal 3 processes around 4,000 to 6,000 arriving and departing passengers," the BI said. The BI said the NAIA management vowed to respond to the influx of international travelers in the country. 'We are thankful to the airport management as they have committed to expand the immigration area. We hope that the space would be sufficient for us to be able to install more counters and deploy more officers,' Tansingco said. Tansingco also cited BI's efforts to modernize its systems, including a target to launch a digitized immigration screening. He said this would help streamline immigration processes and provide a convenient travel experience for international passengers.

Source: Philippines News Agency