BI's Tansingco hopes approval of P4.2B budget to enhance airport operations
Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Norman Tansingco on Wednesday, Oct. 11, expressed hope that the bureau's P4.2 billion budget for 2024 will be approved as huge part of the funds would be used to procure the needed technological updates for the agency's enhanced operations.
The P4.2 billion budget is part of the total 2024 national expenditure program of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to which the BI is an attached agency. The DOJ's budget was discussed last Oct. 9 during the hearing of the Senate Committee on Finance led by Sen. Juan Edgardo "Sonny" M. Angara.
Tansingco said that the BI has to procure electronic gates for use in the country's airports. "The medium-term target is to replace 50 percent of our manual counters to electronic gates,” he also said.
He pointed out that there are only 21 e-gates in major international airports in the country and there is a need to expand the number of e-gates to further increase the efficiency of their services and lessen decongestion at airports.
BI Spokesperson Dana Krizia M. Sandoval explained an e-gate is “an electronic booth that captures the passport and biometric details of passengers.”
“Our e-gates replaces face-to-face contact between the passenger and the immigration officer,” she said.
“It can lower processing time from 45 seconds to as much as only eight seconds,” she added.