by Ma. Cristina Arayata/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — At least two electronic gates (e-gates) will be installed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 2 departure area by end of April.
Immigration Port Operations Division chief, Grifton Medina, told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Tuesday that these will have a dry run and become operational next month.
“All they would have to do is tap their passport and e-card. The e-gates at the departure area would be a big help to make transactions faster since this would only take them 10-15 seconds without facing an immigration counter,” he said.
The two e-gates would be for the use of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) since the prototypes require that passengers were pre-screened and already had previous engagements with the Bureau of Immigration (BI).
“OFWs have the lowest risk in terms of assessment. Because BI is actually the last one to screen them. They were already screened by OWWA (Overseas Workers Welfare Association) and the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs),” he said.
He, however, clarified that this does not mean that immigration officers should be complacent in dealing with the OFWs.
Medina said another 20 e-gates are planned to be installed in the departure areas of NAIA Terminals 1 and 3 next year.
At present, the country’s major airports have e-gates installed at the arrival areas that can be used by Filipino passport holders.
The e-gates minimize the long queues at immigration counters.
A passenger using an e-gate would only need at least 15 seconds, or one third of the usual processing time in an immigration counter.
