THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) has deployed a dozen more officers to the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) ahead of the opening of its new passenger terminal on July 1.
BI Commissioner Jaime H. Morente in the statement pointed out the officers were assigned “to conduct immigration inspection for arriving and departing international travelers.”
MCIA’s new Terminal 2 is expected to increase the passenger capacity of the international airport to more than 12.5 million passengers a year.
“The BI fully supports the vigorous efforts of (President Rodrigo R. Duterte) to market the Philippines as a prime tourist destination, thus our commitment to render quality service to the traveling public in our international ports,” he said.
He added: “We shall be fielding more personnel to MCIA in the coming months as we continue to hire new immigration officers who will agument our manpower not only in Mactan but in other international ports as well.”
BI Acting Deputy Commissioner Marc Red Fariñas in the same statement pointed out Mr. Morente “had been heeding requests for additional personnel in view of the increasing volume of international flights and passengers at the said airport which began early this year.”
According to him, “we had only about 60 BI perssonel assigned as the MCIA in 2017 and that number has now ballooned to more than a hundred.”
There are now 112 immigration personnel in the airport, he said. — Dane Angelo M. Enerio

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