The Bureau of Immigration (BI) is set to sign with the United Nations (UN) this March an agreement to obtain Advanced Passenger Information System (APIS).
With APIS, Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said the BI will immediately know if the person travelling to the Philippines has a criminal record to immediately prevent him from entering the country upon arrival.
“By March 20 magkakaroon na kami ng paglagda ng agreement with the United Nations for what we call the Go Travel,” Viado said during an interview on PTV’s Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon.
With APIS, Viado explained: "Base ho sa manifesto, kung ang isang tao ay galing sa ibang bansa papasok ho ng Pilipinas, while in transit, while in midflight, malalaman na ho namin kung itong tao na ‘to may record ho at pwede ho namin pigilan ang pagpasok nito at gawin po ang nararapat para ibalik s’ya sa kanyang bansang pinanggalingan o maprevent totally (based on the manifest, if the person from abroad will be entering the Philippines, we can find out even if the person, even if still in transit, if the person has criminal records and we need to prevent the person’s entry and have him return to his port of origin or totally prevent the entry).”
He said the APIS is just one of the programs the BI intends to use in getting advanced information from arriving passengers including the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
“‘Yan ho ang tinatrabaho natin ngayon na makapag-gather po ng information from different sources para ho ma-determine namin kung ang isang banyaga ay nararapat ho pumasok dito sa Pilipinas (We are working now on how to get information from different sources to determine if a foreigner should be allowed to enter the Philippines),” he said.
Meanwhile, Viado said: "In the process na ho kami of getting a new detention facility na mas marami ho ang pwedeng i-house na wards na tinatawag (where we can house more wards).
The BI maintains a detention facility in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City that can only house 100 detainees but has been congested since then.