Saturday, October 07, 2006 BI to create VIP lane for Asean leaders
THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) 7 will create a special lane for heads of states that will be exempted from inspection when they arrive to attend an international summit in Cebu in December.
BI 7 Director Geronimo Rosas said their entourage, however, are not exempted and will have to undergo the regular inspection of bags and travel documents, but in a separate lane to be created for them.
Only the head of state and his official family will be allowed to pass without inspection, as part of the diplomatic courtesy, through the VIP lane, Rosas said.
There are about 18 presidents and prime ministers expected to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit, 10 of whom are from the member-countries Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Philippines, Brunei Darrusalam, Singapore and Myanmar.
Verification
The other eight are dialogue partners from Russia, Germany and South Korea, among others.
Rosas said they will request the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to furnish BI 7 with the list of Asean summit participants and their staff, for advance verification of their status abroad.
“To ensure a smooth implementation of our policy, we are coordinating with other government law enforcement agencies and the DFA, the lead agency in the preparations for the Asean summit,” Rosas said.
To ward off any terrorists who might take advantage of the extra attention during the summit, Rosas said that more intelligence officers will be fielded at Mactan Cebu International Airport and Cebu International Port (CIP) starting Nov. 15.
“The terrorists are not sleeping. They are always planning how to sow terror anywhere in the world. So, we have to be vigilant all the time,” Rosas said.
Immigration officers are undergoing a seminar tomorrow, Oct. 8, to discuss how to detect the presence of terrorists, as recommended by anti-terrorism experts from abroad.
The BI 7 is also updating their watchlist, blacklist and profiles, based on reported violations of immigration laws, so that those who should be barred from entering the Philippines can easily be spotted. (EOB)
