Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco expresses optimism for the approval of the 2024 budget request for the agency.

During the public hearing last Monday of the Committee on Finance, presided by Senator Sonny Angara, it was reported that the BI requested a P4.24-billion budget mainly to procure necessary technological upgrades for the agency.

The hearing discussed the proposed 2024 National Expenditure Program of the Department of Justice and its attached agencies.

According to DoJ Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, the amount is included in the department's overall P34.487 billion budget request. He also emphasized that this represents just a 0.60 percent of the entire national budget.

Despite the relatively small amount, Tansingco said that they are confident that they can deliver commitments, particularly in technological upgrades for the bureau.

The BI chief said that part of the budget will be used to procure additional electronic gates for both their arrival and departure operations.

Tansingco added that their medium-term target is to replace 50 percent of their manual counters with electronic gates. Currently, only 21 e-gates are distributed at major international airports.

The Bureau sees the need to expand this to further increase the efficiency of its services and lessen decongestion at airports.