Sen. Chiz Escudero is confident that the bicameral conference committee tackling the 2024 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) will accept the provision inserted by the Senate that will allow the reimbursement of Filipino passengers who were offloaded from their flights due to prolonged interrogation by immigration officers in the guise of fighting human trafficking.
Escudero, who proposed the special provision in the 2024 budget of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) during the budget deliberations at the Senate, said it is but right that the government pay back the more than 32,000 affected passengers in 2022 who were not able to board their flights.
Besides, the veteran lawmaker stressed that the proposed payment will not need additional budgetary requirement “since the money will be charged against the BI’s earnings from collections.”
“Buo ang paniniwala ko na tatanggapin ito sa bicam dahil ang ginalaw ko lamang na pondo ay iyong 10 percent na nakokolekta ng Bureau of Immigration na hindi naman nila nagagamit at binabalik naman nila kada taon sa National Treasury,” Escudero said in a radio interview on Sunday morning.
“Ang overtime pay ng ating mga immigration officers, mga ibang gastusin ng BI para maayos ang kanilang computers, camera, etc. hindi ko naman po ginalaw iyun. So walang nabawasan, walang nasaktan. Ika nga, imbes na bumalik sa Treasury, eh ‘di ibigay na lang natin sa mga na-offload ng walang sapat na basehan,” he added.
According to BI records, a total of 32,404 Filipino passengers were not allowed to proceed with their flights last year, of which 472 were found to be victims of human trafficking or illegal recruitment.
“Liwanagin ko lang, ito ay retroactive provision. Lahat ng mga na-offload sa nagdaang panahon, pwedeng mag-claim. Nasa sa BI na iyan kung ano ang ire-require nila sa mga pasahero? Ticket ba? Pruweba na inoffload sila, petsa dapat na sila ay umalis, magkano nagastos sa tiket, etc. Mga requirements iyan na pwedeng ipataw ng DOJ at BI,” Escudero said.
Moving forward, the senator said the Department of Justice and the BI should produce a document that will serve as a policy guideline or check list in screening outbound Filipino passengers to protect them against human trafficking.
“Dapat na magkaroon ng guidelines. Ano ba iyung mga dapat nilang hinahanap? Parang checklist na kumbaga, pag seven out of 10 sa listahan nakita nila as red flag sa pasahero ay offloaded ‘yan,” he pointed out.
“As soon as meron na silang patakaran, definite checklist kung sino nga ba ang ma-offload o hindi, iyon ang magtutulak sa kanila na gawin na yan ngayon na babayaran nila ang sinumang i-offload nila,” he added.
The senator also expressed hope that President Marcos will not veto the said provision since the allocation amounting to P200 million is but a small fragment of the government’s P5.7-trillion budget next year.
“Maliit na halaga lamang itong P200 million kaugnay sa ng mahigit P5-trillion budget ng pamahalaan at nakabase pa ito sa income ng BI, hindi nakabase sa bagong buwis na kokolektahin ng BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue), kaya wala akong nakikita na masasaktan ang gobyerno rito sa ating panukala,” he said.
The issue about unwarranted offloading of passengers surfaced earlier in March 16, 2023 after lifestyle vlogger Cham Tanteras took to social media and ranted about her experience being offloaded after lengthy questioning which included being asked to present a year book before her trip to Israel.
She was later cleared to board but then missed her flight as the boarding gate has already closed then.
The vlogger lost P19,000 in the process because of her unused plane ticket and she also had to spend another P27,000 for flight rebooking just so she could proceed with her scheduled trip.
The video went viral and the Bureau of Immigration has relieved the subject immigration officer.
Tanteras has since filed a complaint against the officer. (Marlon Luistro)
