THE Bureau of Immigration has installed BI Information System (BIIS) to improve electronic border control and information system to bolster the agency’s ability to thwart the entry of illegal aliens and enhance the integrity of its travel documentation processing system.
“The system facilitates the faster immigration processing of the thousands of travelers who enter and exit the country via the Ninoy Aquino International Airport [Naia] and other major ports nationwide,” Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said.
A flagship project of the BI, the new BIIS now operates in all three terminals of the Naia and the airports in Clark, Mactan, Davao, Iloilo, Laoag, Kalibo, and Zamboanga.
“Using the highest international standards, we put the ingenuity and creativity of the Filipino to work to produce a system that covers the myriad of migration and border concerns, and links up the many information sources and databases from our own records as well as domestic and international partners,” Morente said.
He disclosed that with the new automated system, immigration processing time in immigration counters is now down to 20-30 seconds from the previous average of 45-60 seconds per passenger.
Morente described the system as very comprehensive as it stores more than 320 million arrival and departure records in a centralized database.
“It is also inter-connected with the Interpol which allows us to access databases and information on wanted fugitives who are subjects of red notices, stolen and lost travel documents, and fingerprints as well,” he said.
It was learned that the BIIS is equipped with improved security features through cameras and fingerprint scanners that were installed in the airports to take pictures of passengers and do biometrics.
Another feature of the system is its capacity to recognize faces and detect fraudulent passports and travel documents through the use of ultraviolet and infrared devices.
The BI said the BIIS will soon be linked to the databases of the Philippine National Police, the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.