CLARK FREEPORT -- The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said it is fast-tracking the installation of additional closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in all of the country's international airports.
The project is part of efforts to improve its passenger monitoring capability, and prevent corruption among its port personnel, the BI, under the leadership of Commissioner Jaime Morente said.
BI Port Operations Acting Chief Grifton Medina disclosed that more than a hundred CCTV cameras were already installed at Terminals 2 and 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Mactan-Cebu International Airport
and Clark International Airport.
According to Medina, the CCTVs operate 24-hours a day in all immigration counters at the arrival and departure areas of the four airports, where all activities and movements of people captured by the cameras are recorded on a real-time basis.
Medina added that rehabilitation of old CCTVs previously installed at the NAIA Terminal 1 will soon be undertaken in the second phase of the project, which will be followed by the putting up of new cameras in several other international ports.
Morente welcomed the successful implementation of the project.
He said this is in compliance with the orders of President Duterte who wanted the BI to institute more effective measures to monitor passenger movement at the airports, and the actions of BI officers while they are on duty.
"These CCTVs are effective deterrents against corruption as our officers will now be wary and discouraged to commit irregularities as all their actions will surely be caught on camera," the BI chief said.
BI Acting Spokesman Melvin Mabulac, who is the acting chief of the Bureau of Immigration National Operations Center (Binoc), which is overseeing the rehabilitation project, said additional CCTVs will be added to the existing cameras at the NAIA Terminal 1.
He also added that several CCTVs will soon be installed at the Davao International Airport. After this, similar cameras will be placed in the ports of Iloilo, Kalibo, Puerto Princesa, Bohol-Panglao, Zamboanga and Subic.
Mabulac stressed the importance of the CCTVs not only in preventing corruption but also in investigating reports or allegations of irregularities against BI personnel assigned in the major ports of the country.
The Binoc chief also revealed that aside from the ports, several CCTVs were installed at the BI's satellite and extension offices in SM North and Student Visa Section in Quezon City; BI Peza and SM Aura in Taguig; and BI Makati.