Pinoys coming home for Christmas may now use BI's e-gates

Anticipating an influx of Filipinos arriving for the Christmas season, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said on Tuesday that balikbayans may now pass through the electronic gates (e-gates) installed at the arrival areas for faster immigration processing.

In a statement, BI Port Operations chief Carlos Capulong said that the reopening of the e-gates was ordered by Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente who wanted the project relaunched in time for the Christmas holiday break when an influx of international travelers is anticipated.

According to BI, the e-gates, which are found in all three terminals of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and the Clark International Airport (CIA) in Angeles City, will cut the processing time for passengers from the present 45 seconds to as low as 8 seconds.

This project was launched in August 2018, but was suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic in March due to fears of passengers of possible exposure to the virus whenever they need their fingers biometrically scanned by machines when passing through the e-gates.

Capulong, however, noted that the BI has implemented strict sanitation protocols to minimize contamination risks.

Meanwhile, Morente said he is optimistic about the increased number of arrivals for the holiday season despite the travel restrictions implemented due to the threat of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.

“We see that domestic travel is, little by little, bouncing back, and we see the same coming soon for the international travel sector,” he said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) classified Omicron as a variant of concern, prompting the Philippines to impose travel ban on passengers from South Africa, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini, and Mozambique.

“Of the more than 6,000 arrivals during the first day of December, majority (85%) are Filipinos.  While the numbers remain relatively low, we expect it to slowly rise as we near Christmas and New Year,” Morente added, noting that many of the passengers who came home were OFWs and returning Filipinos.

BI reported around 152,000 passengers who entered the country in December 2020.

The bureau has also created a rapid response team and augmented its personnel to attend to the needs of the arriving passengers.—LDF, GMA News