-- Don’t F With Bureau of Immigration Here NOVEMBER 1, 2013 BY COREY RICHARD3 COMMENTS Philippines has been submitted and accepted by GUINNESS BOOK OR WORLD RECORDS for having the record of the Longest detained immigration prisoners by years than any other country in the world. Philippines has less than 200 detained immigration prisoners yet by percentage and populous beats every other country in the world by more than 420% by having immigration detainees locked up illegally by anaverage of 4.2 years per person. Most if not all of these immigration detainees are only minor administrative violations yet the Bureau of Immigration and the Department of Justice allows foreigners to be locked up for incredible length of times even if the foreign national is married and has a Filipino family. This is not the type of Guineas Record a country should be proud of. Hopefully the Philippines will act swiftly to correct their standing on the chart as the #1 country in the world by over 420% to the next closest country which is Cambodia and Myanmar. If Philippines wants to attract more foreign tourists and investors and wants to become a world class government, this needs to change. AND ANOTHER PHILIPPINES BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION BANKRUPT, CAN NO LONGER PAYEXPENSES Inside sources at the Bureau of Immigration have revealed that the budget for 2013 has been exceeded and there is no money to pay expenses. The unnamed high official said that various reasons attribute to this. An overzealous policy on arresting foreigners on minor visa violations and deporting them is a big reason, the cost of deporting them without collecting the arrears andfines has cost the BI a tremendous loss of income and high expense for plane tickets to deport the foreigners. Another reason for the exceeded budget is the cost of keeping over 150 detainees at the Bicutan detention center, the facility is built to hold 124 detainees. Despite the BI deporting an average of 20 foreigners a month, the population does not decrease, it remains over capacity. A unofficial policy of not giving bail to foreigners, despite most cases being minor visa violations, was adopted in ex-Commissioner Ricardo A. David jr. administration. His "go after foreigners and lock them up" has led to his humiliating resignation just before President Aquinos 2013 SONA speech, where the President publically blasted Immigration officials as "shameless". Only a few cases of bail can be counted in the past year, which greatly increases the expense of supporting the detainees. The cost of transporting foreigners detained to their court hearings on other islands, are costing the BI 47,300 php per hearing. This figure was verified by a letter written by OIC Commissioner Siegfred Mison, in a letter received by the Supreme Court on August 08, 2013. In the letter, OIC Commissioner Siegfred Mison pleaded with the Supreme court to have cases outside of Manila to be moved to Manila for trial hearings, as to minimize transport cost. The high ranking official also said that the Bicutan detention center runs on bare minimum guards, the administrative office air con has broken and cannot be fixed, as well as the copier, fax machine and other vital office equipment that is required to run the detention center properly. The transportation vans are also in bad need of repair, tires are splitting and need replacing, as well as the battery. The vans cannot be started and the guards must push the van to jump start it. The recent lawsuits being filed against BI officials for criminal complaints, investigations by outside agencies, time consuming interviews and investigations, the cost of defending the BI in court hearings has also weighed heavily on the 2013 budget.
I don't understand this. There shouldn't be a jail punishment for overstay as there is obviously not a budget for it. They should just give foreigners the option; pay the fees and leave, leave without paying the fees and get blacklisted until you pay them or get detention if you can't afford to leave. I think the problem is that all things bureaucracy here is a total mess and runs way slow. The juggernauts are easily bogged down to nearly stopping. I have a buddy here who got busted for a visa violation (someone tipped off the BOI and they nabbed him) and spent months in detention. But this guy was in a situation where he was going through a 3rd party handler and thought everything was fine. He also had the money to pay the fees from day one. Instead, he ended up being transported to detention, paid way more money than he should have in lawyer fees, bribes and other things and then he was able to get out and go back to his life here. I could see this happening for sure. You get into the detention, which is clearly a mess. Even if you have the resources to give them what they want, it's difficult to get communication and coordination to the outside world. As you are sitting there, your resources are getting further hammered by not being able to manage your income and getting hit with bribe demands. Even if you have enough to pay your fees and get home, that may not be the case after months in detention.
