MANILA -- The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has issued new travel
cards for international passengers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport
(NAIA).
According to Commissioner Jaime Morente, the forms, which were released
July 1, aim to improve the monitoring of foreigners and also to ensure the safe
departure of Filipinos.
“The information that we collect in our arrival and departure cards is
vital in improving our alien monitoring and mapping, as well as gathering added
information to ensure our departing kababayans’ safety,” he said in a statement
Thursday.
The BI chief added that the issuance of new travel cards is also part
of the continuing efforts to improve the services to the traveling public.
“These improvements will have a big impact in the border management
efforts of the Bureau,” said Morente.
For his part, BI OIC Deputy Commissioner Marc Red Mariñas noted that
the distribution of the new travel cards to the different airlines commenced
early this month.
He added that copies of the newly-printed cards are now available at
the immigration arrival and departure areas of all three terminals of NAIA.
In the new cards, passengers are asked to write their full name,
nationality, passport number, contact number, flight/voyage number, purpose of
trip, occupation, port of exit/destination, and their address here and abroad.
Travelers are also required to sign and declare that the information
written in the card is true, correct and complete.
The use of arrival and departure cards has been a universal practice of
immigration departments in many countries as it is considered essential to
document passengers for border management and compiling passenger statistics.
They are regarded as a legal document used to obtain information from
travelers which are not provided in
their passports and provide additional
record of a person’s entry and departure to and from a particular country.
Every arrival and departure card is surrendered by a passenger to the
primary immigration inspector upon his arrival or before his departure.
Meanwhile, the head of the Bureau’s Port Operations Division disclosed
that the old arrival and departure cards were phased out due to observations
that it did not provide sufficient information about a traveler who enters or
leaves the country.
The BI intends to finish soon the distribution of the new cards to
different international airports and seaports throughout the country such as
Mactan, Clark, Kalibo, Davao, and Zamboanga. (PR)
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