BI installs more CCTV cameras in all of PH international airports, satellite offices

QUEZON CITY, July 12 (PIA)  —  The Bureau of Immigration (BI) is  fast tracking its installation of additional Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras in all of the country’s international airports as part of its efforts to improve passenger  monitoring capability and  deter corruption among its personnel.

BI Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said the project was launched in compliance with President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive for 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 added.

More than 100  CCTV cameras were already installed at Terminals 2 and 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport’s (NAIA’s) Terminals 2 and 3, Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA), and Clark International Airport (CIA), according to BI Port Operations Acting Chief Grifton 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 real time basis,” Medina said.

He added that for the second phase of the project, BI is planning to restore and reuse the old CCTV cameras that were previously installed at the NAIA Terminal 1.

Medina said that the next phase of the project is to install CCTV cameras in several other international ports of the country.

BI Acting Spokesman Melvin Mabulac, and acting chief of the Bureau of Immigration National Operations Center (BINOC), overseeing the rehabilitation project, said that additional CCTVs will be added to the existing cameras at the NAIA Terminal 1.

He added that  several CCTV cameras will soon be installed at the Davao International Airport. After which, similar cameras will be placed in the ports of Iloilo, Kalibo, Puerto Princesa, Bohol-Panglao, Zamboanga, and Subic.

Mabulac emphasized the importance of the CCTVs  in preventing corruption and also in investigating reports or allegations of irregularities against BI personnel assigned in the major ports of the country.

He also said 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.  (VQR with reports from BI/PIA-IDPD).