SEN. Francis “Chiz” Escudero is confident the bicameral conference committee tackling the 2024 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) will accept the provision inserted by the Senate that will allow the reimbursement of passengers offloaded from their flights due to prolonged interrogation of immigration officers in the guise of fighting human trafficking.

Escudero said it is right that the government pay back the more than 32,000 affected passengers in 2022 who were not able to board their flights due to lengthy interrogation by immigration officers.

Besides, the proposed payment will not need additional budgetary requirements since the money will be charged against the BI’s earnings from collections.

“Ang overtime pay ng ating mga immigration officers, mga ibang gastusin ng BI para maayos ang kanilang computers, camera, etc. hindi ko naman po ginalaw iyun.

So walang nabawasan, walang nasaktan. Ika nga, imbes na bumalik sa Treasury, eh ‘di ibigay na lang natin sa mga na-offload ng walang sapat na basehan,” he said.

According to BI records, a total of 32,404 Filipino passengers were not allowed to proceed with their flights last year, of which 472 were found to be victims of human trafficking or illegal recruitment.

“Liwanagin ko lang, ito ay retroactive provision. Lahat ng mga na-offload sa nagdaang panahon, pwedeng mag-claim. Nasa BI na iyan kung ano ang ire-require nila sa mga pasahero. Ticket ba? Pruweba na offloaded sila, petsa dapat na sila ay umalis, magkano nagastos sa tiket, etc. Mga requirements iyan na pwedeng ipataw ng DOJ at BI,” Escudero said.

“As soon as meron na silang patakaran, definite checklist kung sino nga ba ang ma-offload o hindi, iyon ang magtutulak sa kanila na gawin na yan ngayon na babayaran nila ang sinumang i-offload nila,” he added.

Escudero also expressed hope that President Marcos will not veto the provision since the allocation amounting to P200 million is but a small fragment of the government’s P5.7-trillion budget next year.

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PS Jun M. Sarmiento