After backlash, Immigration to review proposed P480 fee

Following widespread backlash on social media over its proposed immigration fee of P480 per round-trip international passenger, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) has committed to reviewing the planned charges.

This is public vigilance at work as several media outlets, social media platforms and OFW Facebook groups picked up my May 28 column on the BI’s planned Civil Aviation and Immigration Security Services (CAISS) Project.

In my piece titled “Immigration to charge passengers P480,” I sounded the alarm on the project as it would mean a user fee for passengers leaving and entering the country of $4, equivalent to P240 at an exchange rate of P60 to the dollar (one-way).

That’s a total of $8 or P480 for a passenger traveling round-trip between the Philippines and elsewhere.

I also wrote succeeding columns on the topic, saying that the P480 fee is not justified, considering the project cost is P10.7 billion, while the fee could generate about P14 billion a year based on the 2025 passenger count of 29 million.

My third piece on the issue was about the concerns raised by OFWs.

BI responds

In response, Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said that he has directed “a comprehensive review and stakeholder consultation process regarding the proposed user fee component of the CAISS, which proposes a $4 user fee, or around P247.”

The backlash was widespread, as Filipinos expressed frustration over the seemingly never-ending fees citizens have to pay for services that the government is actually mandated to provide.

As I wrote, OFW groups on Facebook were quick to criticize the plan, saying it would only mean an additional burden for OFWs and frequent travelers.

‘Still a proposal’

Viado, trying to contain the public outcry, said the project is still a proposal and has not yet been “finalized.”

“The CAISS project remains a proposed public-private partnership initiative intended to enhance immigration operations systems, real-time risk assessment, data integration and automated border control technologies,” he said in the BI statement.

I assume here that Commissioner Viado is merely being technical when he said the project is still a proposal.

He is correct in a sense because, literally, the CAISS is an unsolicited proposal that has not yet been awarded to the proponent – US-headquartered Securiport LLC – but only because it is still subject to a Swiss Challenge.

But fundamentally speaking, and Commissioner Viado knows this, the project isn’t merely a proposal that the agency is considering. Instead, the BI and the PPP Center have been moving along the different stages of the bidding process.

At this stage, the P10.7-billion PPP project was just awaiting challengers.

Under Philippine laws, an unsolicited proposal must be subject to a Swiss Challenge, wherein the government invites rival companies to submit better offers. After this step, the original proponent has the right to match the alternative offers. Only then can the government award the project.

In fact, in Bid Bulletin 8 dated May 18, 2026, the BI issued a Notice of Absence of Submission of Qualification Documents.

“Please be informed that the Bureau of Immigration Pre-qualifying, Bids and Awards (PBAC) Committee for the Civil Aviation and Immigration Security Services Project did not receive any Pre-Qualification Documents from any prospective challenger by the submission deadline of May 14, 2026, at 12:00 noon.

“Accordingly, pursuant to Section 1.4 (b) of the Instructions to Comparative Challengers and Section 80 of the PPP Code IRR, the PBAC shall proceed with the remaining procurement activities, including the finalization and approval of the draft PPP Contract,” says the bulletin signed by lawyer Arvin Cesar Santos, chairman of the PBAC for the CAISS Project.

So you see, this shows that CAISS is not a mere proposal that the BI has yet to look at. It is an unsolicited proposal, yes, but its bidding procedure is very much alive and ongoing and is, in fact, moving toward finalization.

A separate document on the revised timetable of the project showed that the target date for the approval and issuance of a Notice of Award – either to the challenger or the original proponent – is Sept. 11-14, 2026, instead of the original schedule of Nov. 3, 2025.

The same document shows that the signing date of the PPP Agreement is Oct. 13-19, 2026. This will be between the BI and the winning challenger or original proponent.

Nonetheless, it is a welcome development that Commissioner Viado has committed to review the fees.

He also said that “while the BI fully supports the modernization of the country’s border control systems and the strengthening of national security, the implementation of any additional passenger charge must be carefully studied in consideration of its impact on the traveling public.”

Thank you, BI, for committing to review the user fee.

At a concession period of 20 years and a project cost of P10.7 billion, the proponent needs only P500 million in revenue annually to recover the cost.

A user fee of $0.29 or P17 per one-way passenger (multiplied by 29 million passengers) translates to roughly P500 million a year.

The Palace also said that the project is still under study and not yet final.

I sense a government that has pulled back following the public backlash over the P480 user fee.

At the rate things are going now – with the Senate in disarray and Filipinos still grappling with an energy emergency amid the US-Iran war – the last thing we need is another unnecessary expense.

*      *      *

Email: [email protected]. Follow her on X
@eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.