MANILA, Philippines (Updated 1:28 p.m.) — Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said he ordered the bureau’s newly-reconstituted Board of Discipline to “carefully assess complaints and reports against erring personnel.”
If the board finds the complaint to have merit, they will immediately recommend the filing of an administrative case against them before the Department of Justice, BI’s mother agency.
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"Under the one-strike policy, erring personnel subject of complaints and investigations will be relieved from their posts immediately," the BI said.
Relief is not the same of dismissal from the service. BI spokesperson Dana Sandoval explained that this means they will be assigned to administrative division or back offices.
They will “not be given sensitive posts, pending the resolution of their case,” she added.
READ: BI reshuffles 800 airport personnel amid ‘pastillas’
BI said its records show that 131 personnel have been suspended, dismissed, and dropped from the rolls for various offenses since 2016.
The immigration bureau is in the middle of a corruption controversy stemming from the “pastillas” scheme — where officers allegedly received fees for the seamless entry of Chinese nationals into the country — and the implementation of the Visa Upon Arrival program, also for Chinese travellers.
Morente said that in support of President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive for an intensified drive against corruption, “we have beefed up our Board of Discipline to focus on cleaning up the bureau.”
The immigration said its BOD is currently headed by lawyer Ronaldo Ledesma, previously the bureau’s OIC commissioner and OIC deputy commissioner.
The DOJ has also assigned five additional lawyers to the BOD.
Modernization of immigration law
Morente also said that the bureau does not have disciplinary powers overt its employees. "The set-up now is we are merely recommendatory to the DOJ. If administrative control was to be given to the BI, if we find someone involved in improper activities in the morning, we can immediately implement a suspension in the afternoon,” he shared.
“What we really need is a change in law,” Morente added.
During the Senate hearing into the "pastillas" scheme in February, whistleblower Immigration Officer I Allison Chiong said the money-making racket started in 2016, when some immigration employees “decided to offer VIP services for immigrants who are casino high rollers” to augment their salaries. This was while the government had vetoed the use of Travel Express Fund for the overtime pay of BI employees.
In February, the Immigration Officers Association of the Philippines called for the enactment of “a law modernizing immigration policies and operations, as well as increasing salary scales and compensation of IOs and re-instituting their overtime benefits, among others.”
The BI chief urged the public to report complaints or illegal activities of their personnel to its hotline +632 86452400 or via messenger at Facebook.com/officialbureauofimmigration and Facebook.com/immigration.helpline.ph. — Kristine Joy Patag