BI installs 125 passport readers at RP airports

Foreigners carrying bogus travel documents would have a harder time sneaking into the country now that the Bureau of Immigration (BI) has installed 125 passport reader machines at seven primary airports.

In a statement, BI Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said out of the 125 passport reader machines, a total of 76 were installed at the immigration arrival and departure counters of Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

The remaining 49 machines were distributed among the airports in Cebu, Davao, Clark, Kalibo and Laoag.

Libanan said the acquisition of the machines would beef up the bureau’s efforts in detecting fraudulent travel documents and modernize the country’s border management system.

Simeon Vallada, BI anti-fraud division chief, disclosed that the agency purchased 91 machines while 28 others were donated by the Australian government, under a border management improvement project jointly undertaken by Manila and Canberra.

Libanan said they are expecting shorter queues at the BI counters since they were able to cut down the processing verification time for each passenger to just 30 seconds.

To keep pace with the modern equipment, the BI is also holding continuous training seminars for its immigration officers on the latest scientific and technological means of detecting fraudulent travel papers and on the art of profiling passengers who enter and exit the country daily.

“It is not enough that we acquire the best equipment for our operations. More importantly, we are improving the capability of our personnel to ensure that they perform their jobs as gatekeepers of the country with the utmost competence and efficiency,” he said.

Vallada added that the training is necessary because even with the new equipment there is no 100 percent guarantee that they would be able to detect every passenger carrying spurious travel documents.