BI reforms case study of AIM grad students

MANILA, Philippines - The academe has manifested its interest in the reforms being implemented by the Bureau of Immigration as graduate students from the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) have made the agency the subject of their case study.

Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan delivered a lecture recently before graduating students taking up their Masters degree in the development management at the AIM building in Makati City.

AIM Prof. Edel Guiza said she and her class have been hearing about the positive changes undertaken in the BI under Libanan’s stewardship which enticed them to do a case study on the agency. Guiza, who teaches the class on strategic management in development attended by 43 students from 14 countries, said Libanan has successfully transformed the BI from being an aging organization confronted by complex problems of corruption into a modern and efficient border control management bureau.

“We take notice of the changes in the bureau and we are inspired in our case study on how these reforms made an impact on the delivery of services to foreigners and to the general public,” Guiza said in the study she co-authored. Guiza noted that Libanan’s “out-of-the-box” innovation showed that a “firm political will, coupled with correct handling of its manpower” uplifted the BI’s image in he eyes of international travelers and the general public.

Libanan, in his lecture, outlined the reforms that he initiated in his two-and-a-half-year stint in the bureau, adding that the agency will continue to push for more reforms he initiated since his appointment by President Arroyo in May 2007. Libanan is convinced that the BI’s rank-and-file will not abandon but rather continue the reforms and build on the changes that he instituted in the years to come.