The Bureau of Immigration (BI) prohibited its port personnel from going on leave for three weeks during the Holy Week break to ensure that a sufficient number of officers are available to serve the public.
The ban, which will start on March 24 and will end on April 15, is applied to BI employees assigned at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and all the other international ports nationwide.
Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco underlined that the agency will not entertain any vacation leaves and applications for authority to travel abroad by any BI employee assigned at the ports.
"We are constrained to implement this leave ban to make sure that our service to the traveling public are not interrupted or compromised during the Lenten break when there will surely be a sharp upsurge in the number of passengers who will enter and exit the country," the BI chief said.
Aside from NAIA, the influx of international passengers is also expected in the other major ports such as Mactan, Clark, and Kalibo.
"We have to see to it that our immigration booths at the airports are fully manned in order to cope with the long queues of passengers who will be arriving from or leaving for abroad to spend time with their families and relatives," Tansingco said.
In the statistics, the combined volume of international passengers who arrive and depart from the country averages over 30,000 daily since it reopened its borders to foreigners in March last year.
