Immigration chief won't seek elective post

MANILA, Philippines - Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said yesterday there have been offers for him to run for senator in next year’s polls but he was not inclined to return to the legislature.

“I have no plans to run for the Senate… I think I have already sent the message. I am not running,” he said.

Before being assigned at the BI, Libanan held the position as congressman of the lone district of Eastern Samar for nine years.

Libanan said that he is not bothered if the next president replaces him. “If this happens then I would just have a concert,” he said. The 46-year-old Libanan plays the guitar.

For the past two years, he has been working for the passage of the Commission on Immigration and Naturalization (CIN) Bill which, if approved, would set the term of the BI chief at six years.

The proposed legislation is reportedly still in its second reading in the House of Representatives while, in the Senate, it is still undergoing the period of amendment.

“The reforms in the BI is all encompassing, it covers the system and the people” and Libanan hopes Congress would see the importance in amending the law that created the agency. The Philippine Immigration Act (PIA) was passed in 1940 and some of its provisions are antiquated, he said.

Libanan said the bill would give the BI the authority to hear and decide deportation cases and also resolve petitions for naturalization to Filipino citizenship. At present, petitions for naturalization are resolved by the government’s special committee on naturalization.   – Evelyn Macairan