The Bureau of Immigration has introduced new procedures to further ease and expedite its processing of departing overseas Filipino workers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport with the recent acquisition of several state-of-the-art gadgets from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.
The OWWA provided the BI-NAIA with six tablets and six bar code readers to use to check the authenticity and validity of OWWA E-cards.
The OWWA E-card, available for Balik-Manggagawa OFWs, serves as their exit clearance from the country. Apart from this, the card likewise allows OWWA members to avail OWWA services faster, allow use of the mobile application, and may be used as a permanent government-issued ID, according to OWWA Deputy Administrator Josefino Torres.
BI Port Operations chief Gifton Medina said that there have been instances in the past when OFWs who were victimized by fraud syndicates were caught in possession of fake or invalid overseas employment certificates.
Medina said the gadgets will be given to Immigration personnel assigned to conduct pre-screening of OFWs while the latter are still queuing up for processing at the immigration departure counters of the NAIA.