MANILA — As the Philippines will host the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in November to December, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) is now preparing to ensure security and deal with the passenger influx at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and the Clark International Airport (CRK).
In an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Friday, Immigration Port Operations Division chief Grifton Medina said BI will deploy additional forces in both airports, and put additional equipment at CRK.
He said about 72 officers will be graduating soon. They will be trained at NAIA, and will be deployed at the two airports during the SEA Games.
The immigration workforce at CRK, currently close to 100, will be doubled.
“The additional deployment at CRK will be both permanently and temporarily for the SEA Games. We will deploy additional officers permanently because we are anticipating the new Clark International Airport will open by next year. So we really need additional officers,” he said.
Medina added that the new airport terminal will be huge, much like the one in Cebu.
“It is very vital for us to have strong coordination with the CRK because we need additional counters there. There should also be special counters dedicated for the athletes,’ he remarked.
The official added that BI also needs coordination with organizers since it needs to get advance access to the delegates’ manifests.
With regard to proper preparation in Clark, Medina said that it basically needs desktops and additional counters.
“We need enough counters for our officers to man. CRK, for now, is small,” he reiterated.
Electronic gates (e-gates) are also helpful to ease passenger congestion.
“These will also be helpful as these can be used by our Filipino passengers who frequent CRK. So far, we only have three e-gates there. The space is limited. Of course, we could not occupy a large portion of the arrival area for the e-gates. We still need space for regular counters,” he said.
At NAIA, Medina said its officers are used to dealing with thousands of passengers. Of the 1,000 immigration officers across the country, about 600-800, including supervisors and inspectors, are deployed in NAIA, he said.
About 50-60 additional workforce will man the counters at NAIA during the SEA Games, Medina added.
Medina assured that the BI would be ready for the surge of passengers because it deploys a rapid response mechanism.
A rapid response mechanism ensures there is always somebody to man the immigration counters. That means when additional manpower is needed, the secondary inspectors or the TCEU (Travel Control and Enforcement Unit), admin officers and intel officers, could sit in the counters.
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