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The Bureau of Immigration (BI) apologized for the inconvenience caused by the long queues at the departure immigration counters at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 on Thu, Jul 2.
“We’d like to apologize for the incident and for the inconvenience that this may have caused,” BI spokesperson Elaine Tan said in an interview on ANC’s Top Story.
Tan admitted that there were only 8 immigration personnel on duty at the departure area early Thu. Twenty-six officers, meanwhile, were on duty at the arrival area, she said.
She said this was the “normal” deployment during that shift.
According to Tan, a sudden influx of passengers may have caused the queues at the departure immigration counters to build up.
“It was a normal plan, it was a normal deployment. We usually have 8 immigration officers during that shift. But then as per the terminal head, there was a sudden influx at 5 a.m. So perhaps the passengers did not line up immediately at the counter so there was a sudden influx… After the check-in they didn’t proceed to immigration. That’s a possibility,” she said.
Passengers said they waited for more than an hour before they reached the immigration counter.
As a result, many missed their flights.
A total of 29 passengers missed two Cebu Pacific flights bound for Hong Kong and Singapore.
Tan vowed that this would not happen again, saying that they will start implementing overlapping work schedules to make sure that there are enough immigration personnel on duty to accommodate the passengers.
“We promise that this won’t happen again because we are planning to have a different shifting schedule for the following days. Presently we have just four, but we will change it to seven shifts na para may overlap po yung immigration officers,” she said.
“Ima-manage natin kung kailan po yung mga peak hours at more officers to those shifts. Marami na, overlap, so ‘di mawawalan ng officers,” she added.
But the immigration official also requested passengers to be at the counter 45 minutes before boarding.
She said those who are about to be late for their flights may approach immigration supervisors so that they can be accommodated as soon as possible.
As for the 29 passengers who missed their flights earlier, Tan said they will check what time the passengers checked in and what time they were processed in the immigration counter.
“We’ll try to coordinate and get in touch with the airlines po to see what we can do to help the passengers naman para di sila masyado ma-hassle,” she added.
Text: Kathlyn dela Cruz, ABS-CBNnews.com
Photo by Raoul Esperas for ABS-CBNnews,.com
This article has been re-published with permission from ABS-CBNnews.com.
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