Long queues at airports due to peak travel season, Immigration says

MANILA, Philippines — Expect longer immigration lines at the airports as travel peaks for summer.

Social media posts earlier Wednesday showed lines at the airport backed up, with one social media user saying it took her more than an hour to go through immigration.

Bureau of Immigration spokesperson Antonette Mangrobang said long queues at the airport are due to "summer peak season passenger traffic." She said the long lines will likely be common until June.

But an insider, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, told Philstar.com that there has been a notable increase in Immigration officers taking leaves due to unpaid wages.

"Many haven't been reporting to work because of pay issues," the insider said in Filipino.

The Bureau of Immigration, early in 2017, was hit with a similar problem as the bureau felt the effect of President Rodrigo Duterte’s veto on the use of Express Lane Fees to pay for the officers' overtime.

The bureau had been using Express Lane Fees—collected from foreigners who want to fast-track transactions—to pay for officers' overtime  and for wages of employees under job order contracts. Because of the 2017 veto, the ELF instead went to the National Treasury. 

Employees opted to file indefinite leaves or seek employment elsewhere as their salaries—without the overtime pay—were not enough.

In December 2017, Duterte allowed Immigration to put the ELF into a “trust fund” for the payment of salaries and overtime of its employees.

READ: With OT pay back, Immigration returns to regular work hours

According to Duterte, the trust fund — which will be subject to guidelines of the Commission on Audit and secretaries of Justice and Budget — will exist until Congress has enacted a new Immigration Modernization Law that will upgrade BI’s compensation system.

Congress is on break until May 15. 

Mangrobang denied that there has been an increase in the number of Immigration officers on leave. She likewise denied that there are issues on overtime pay.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, for his part, said he will confer with the bureau on the issue of long queues at the airport.

"The last time I discussed this matter with them, I was informed that the physical configuration of the terminals had something to do with the long queues. The domestic flights have to be moved away from international flights to provide more space for additional immigration counters, they explained," he said.

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