Solusyon sa korupsiyon sa Immigration, pagpasa ng bagong batas sa Immigration act

ANG pagpasa ng isang bagong batas sa Immigration ang nakikitang solusyon ni Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Jaime Morente upang matigil ang katiwalian sa ahensiya.

“I have talked to the President and raised this concern to him as well. The Philippine Immigration Act is a very old law, 80 years old to be exact. It was enacted during a time when there were no international flight yet entering and leaving the country,” ayon kay Morente. “Many of its provisions are already outdated and inappropriate already,” dagdag pa nito..

Paliwanag ni Morente na ang solusyon ng korupsiyon sa ahensiya ay nagagawa sa pamagitan ng three-tier approach.

“We have already done the first two,” ayon kay Morente. “The short-term solution is relieve all those found to have been involved in corrupt practices, hence we relieved all names implicated in the Pastillas issue, and implemented a one strike policy for anyone who tries to follow suit,” dagdga pa niya.

Noong nakaraang linggo, inanunsiyo nito ang one-strike policy na ire-relieve nito ang sinumang empleyado na may mga reklamo dito habang hindi pa siya nasasampahan ng kasong administratibo.

“The medium-term solution is reorganizing the system,” paliwanag niya.. “To add layers of checks and balances, we have transferred the supervision of the Travel Control and Intelligence Unit and the Border Control and Intelligence unit under a different division. This will serve as a sort of audit to the actions of those in the Port Operations Division, and dismantles any semblance of a central control of possible illegal activities. It adds more eyes watching and auditing the activities of airport personnel,” dagdag pa nito.

Sinabi ni Morente na sa kabila ng mga pagbabago, tanging ang pagbabago sa Philippine Immigration Act.

“The new law, which is already in Congress, will answer salary woes, remove systemic issues, plug loopholes in policies, up- date fines and penalties, ensure division of power, and confer to the Commissioner the proper disciplinary powers,” ayon pa sa kanya. (Gene Adsuara)