6,000 names purged from Bureau of Immigration's hold-departure list

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Immigration (BI) yesterday removed the names of 6,000 people listed under its hold departure order (HDO) and watch list order (WLO) after learning that the orders monitoring and restricting their travel have expired.

“We hope that as a result of this cleansing process, fewer people will be inconvenienced at the airports and prevented from leaving because their names happen to be in our derogatory list,” Immigration Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. said.

David said thousands more with expired HDOs and WLOs will be erased from the bureau’s database in the coming weeks.

BI Law and Investigation Division (LID) chief Arvin Santos clarified that only the HDOs and WLOs issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and BI have been cleared.

Santos said all WLOs issued before May 25, 2010 are considered expired while HDOs that lasted for five years or more from the date of issuance have been cancelled.

Santos said 18 HDOs and 19 WLOs issued by the DOJ as well as 4,465 HDOs and 9,853 WLOs issued by the BI are under review.