The Philippines continues to be a favorite destination of foreign tourists in the region as shown by the increasing number of aliens arriving in the country this year, the Bureau of Immigration said yesterday.
Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan revealed that some 4.4 million foreigners arrived in the country during the first 10 months of this year.
He said this figure showed a seven-percent increase in the number of foreign visitors as compared to the same period last year when 4.1 million aliens arrived in the country.
“This only shows that more foreigners are coming into the Philippines for vacation, work or business purposes. This is beneficial for the country as a whole since it is a major boost to our economy,” Libanan stressed in an interview with The STAR.
Libanan likewise attributed the influx of foreigners to reforms that simplified and liberalized BI’s procedures and requirements in processing visa applications and other immigration documents.
He stressed there has also been an upsurge in the number of foreigners who applied for extensions of visas.
“We have been implementing reforms to provide convenience to our clients. This way, we believe that we would be able to encourage more foreigners to come to the country. And this will have benefits to our government as well,” Libanan explained.
The BI chief explained that the country’s economy was the immediate beneficiary of the increase in arrival of foreigners.
As a result of increased foreign arrivals, Libanan reported that the collection of the bureau has also risen to P1.4 billion during the same period.
This 10-month income from immigration fees represents a P171 million or 14-percent increase from the P1.2 billion collection of the bureau in the same period last year.
It was also higher by P231-million or 20 percent more compared to the target of P1.15 billion for that period, he added.
According to BI finance chief Elvira Presado, the BI’s annual take has steadily risen from only P891 million in 2001 to P1.07 billion in 2002; P1.09 billion, 2003; P1.1 billion, 2004; P1.27 billion in 2005; and P1.46 billion in 2006.
Presado said she expects the BI’s income to surpass P1.5 billion by the end of the year, adding that the bureau is just half a million pesos short of attaining its P1.45-billion target.
Recently, the BI has been recognized as one of the top five government agencies that contributed to the national coffers from 2001 to 2006.