Bureau of Immigration, Pagcor chiefs to get longer terms

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives has approved two bills extending the terms of office of Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) Chairman Efraim Genuino.

The extended term for Libanan is contained in House Bill 6568, or the proposed Philippine Immigration Act of 2009. Ten congressmen led by Pedro Romualdo of Camiguin authored it.

The House has approved HB 6568 on third and final reading. It is now with the Senate justice committee chaired by Francis “Chiz” Escudero.

A member of Escudero’s staff told The STAR over the weekend that his boss has no plan of endorsing the bill in the remaining six days of session before Congress adjourns for the election campaign.

This means that Libanan will not get his term extension from the outgoing 14th Congress.

Libanan is a former Eastern Samar congressman. President Arroyo appointed him to the Bureau of Immigration in 2007.

The term extension for Genuino, on the other hand, is embodied in HB 6989, which gives the chairman and chief executive officer of Pagcor a fixed term of three years.

Forty-four congressmen led by Speaker Prospero Nograles and Manila Rep. Amado Bagatsing introduced the bill.

It provides that the Pagcor chairman “at the time of the effectivity of this Act, shall continue to hold the position of chairman and chief executive officer for a new term of three years, unless he is replaced by the President of the Philippines within a period of ninety days immediately following the effectivity of this Act.”

Genuino has been Pagcor chief since the start of the Arroyo administration. He is reportedly a close friend of the President’s husband.

Unfortunately for him, the House has passed the term extension bill only on second reading. His congressmen-critics are out to block third-reading approval of the measure.

Even if the House railroads its approval, it is highly unlikely that the Senate will pass it before the election campaign adjournment next weekend.

But on the possibility that the bill would be approved, the law would allow Mrs. Arroyo to appoint an ally in the crucial revenue-generating government corporation with only around one month left before the election appointment ban starts.

Speaker Nograles admitted the bill might not be approved citing the “lack of material time,” and “many objections” to the bill.

But Nograles added: “It’s hard to predict. The mood of the members change from day to day and dusk to dawn.”

The proposed new immigration law, on the other hand, seeks to reorganize the immigration bureau into the Commission on Immigration, which would be under the “administrative supervision” of the Office of the President.

The present Bureau of Immigration (BI) is attached to the Department of Justice.

The envisioned commission will basically have the same functions and powers as BI. However, HB 6568 gives the immigration commissioner and his associate commissioners a fixed term of three years.

Under the transitory provisions of the bill, the “incumbent commissioner and the two associate commissioners, if qualified, shall serve as the first commissioner and associate commissioners under this Act.”

It also provides that the “present personnel of the Bureau of Immigration shall continue to discharge the functions of their position for a period of one year from the date of the effectivity of this Act.”

Within that period, the immigration commissioner would submit a new staffing pattern to the Department of Budget and Management, whose implementation could displace hundreds of BI employees.

BI workers have criticized congressmen, claiming they are trying to protect Libanan and his associate commissioners while leaving the rank-and-file personnel in limbo.

They said lawmakers should not usurp the prerogative of the next president by giving favorite officials a term extension in the guise of amending laws.