The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has banned its employees assigned at the international airports from going on leave during the holidays to ensure the availability of adequate personnel for the expected rise of passengers.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente reiterated a standing policy prohibiting immigration employees deployed at the different ports from applying for vacation leaves starting on Dec. 1, until Jan. 15 next year.
Morente said the no-leave policy is necessary to avert long queues at the airports before and after the Christmas and New Year holidays when there is always a marked increase in the number of passengers who enter and exit the country.
“This is the time of every year when the services of our immigration inspectors are most needed in the airports, ” the BI chief said.
He stressed that except for medical and emergency reasons, no application for leave will approved while the one-and-a-half-month ban is in effect.
Morente added that he ordered Carlos Capulong, BI port operations chief, to form a team of on-call immigration officers to augment and assist personnel rendering supervisory and primary inspection duties at the airports.
Capulong said he does not see the number of passengers rising to pre-pandemic levels, but are getting ready for an increase of Filipinos who may be vacationing here during the holiday season.