Reimbursement of offloaded passengers won't affect BI personnel's pay, benefits--Chiz insists
Employees of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) can expect their salaries and benefits to remain intact and untouched even if the government allows the reimbursement of thousands of offloaded passengers.
Senator Francis "Chiz" Escudero made this assurance even with the inclusion of a provision in the 2024 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) that allows the reimbursement of thousands of passengers who missed their flights due to long immigration assessment.
Escudero said there is nowhere in the 2024 GAB that says that the funds to be used to repay the affected passengers will be coming from the budget for employees’ salary and augmentation allowances.
“Any diminution from the salary and augmentation of BI personnel is illegal and unauthorized,” Escudero said.
He said that based on his proposal that was adopted in the final version of the 2024 GAB, the reimbursement fund will come from the excess income of the Immigration bureau that is being returned annually to the National Treasury.
“The money to refund offloaded passengers will not come from/nor will it be deducted from BI personnel,” he stressed.
“I will look closely into this to ensure that the intent and mandate of Congress regarding this is followed to the letter," he promised.
Escudero earlier assured the proposed reimbursement will not need additional budgetary requirement since the money will be charged against the BI's earnings from collections.
The overtime pay of the BI officers, and other miscellaneous expenses, he said, will remain intact.