MANILA, Philippines – The Senate is set to allow the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to use the agency’s express lane fees for the payment of overtime of employees in 2018.

Senate finance committee chair Loren Legarda said the BI has been allowed “since time immemorial” to use these funds for employees’ overtime pay and bonuses until 2017, when it was stopped. She was responding to the questions of Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III.

The Senate, Legarda said, had inserted a provision in past budgets to allow the system. It was Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno who scrapped the system in 2017, prompting a mass leave and resignation of immigration personnel and long queues in airports.

President Rodrigo Duterte vetoed the provision which allowed the use of express lane charges to augment the salaries of BI personnel. It remains to be seen if Duterte would do the same for 2018. (READ: Duterte’s veto leaves thousands of BI workers scrambling for money)

“Past administations have granted them access to express lane funds: the 6 years of the Aquino administration, Arroyo administration, from time immemorial. It’s the first time in 2017, for 29 years, Mr President. Now, while we are enacting a law, can we not at least grant them this? So that once the law is enacted, there would be no issue,” Legarda said, referring to Senate Bill 1556 or the Philippine Immigration and Registration of Foreign Nationals Act.

With the implemented rule in 2017, Legarda said there have been 96 resignations while 76 employees have gone on leave. Citing BI personnel, Legarda said more workers are expected to leave after they receive their year-end bonuses. (READ: More immigration workers to resign if salary woes not solved – union)

“I really hope we could allow that in next year’s GAA (General Appropriations Act). We are losing good people,” Legarda said on Tuesday, October 10, during the Senate deliberations on the budget of the Department of Justice. The BI is an attached agency of the DOJ.

“There have been resignations, 96′ and 76 have gone on leave. Nakakalungkot, Mr President. Sayang mga na-train na ito, magagaling na tao (It’s saddens me, Mr President. Their training would go to waste; these are competent people). As we know immigration is the first line of defense, security issue. We should have competent people,” she added.

Sotto welcomed Legarda’s view, saying he would introduce changes during the period of amendments of the 2018 budget.

“I concur. Very good….I will craft the amendment and we will try to resolve some issues including express lane utilization during the period of amendment,” Sotto said.

It remains to be seen if the proposed amendment would be adopted in the bicameral conference committee and, more importantly, if this would again be vetoed by Duterte.

‘Bashing’

With the upcoming holiday season, Legarda said the government will be “bashed” here and abroad if there are not enough BI employees manning the fort.

“Magpapasko na naman (Christmas is coming). All these people going on leave, resigning – we will be bashed locally internationally, with long queues of tourists and balikbayan if we don’t have the people,” Legarda said.

“It’s so incovenient. The funds are there….So its been there for 29 years. Maybe we can prevail upon those who are intending to leave not to leave if we grant them this…and then when the law is enacted, we can reconsider it,” she said.

The late senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, then BI commissioner,  instituted a scheme to augment workers’ salaries to fight corruption in 1988.

She introduced the express lane service at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). Revenues from the operation funded the increase in a worker’s pay up to P30,000 to P50,000 a month. The augmentation came in the form of overtime pay and bonuses.

Diokno, however, opposed this and said it was time to abolish what he said was a corrupt system within the BI that prevailed over decades despite continuous scrutiny. – Rappler.com