NAIA swamped by arriving balikbayans, vacationing OFWs

Overseas workers and "balikbayans" started arriving at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) yesterday to observe Holy Week in their respective hometowns.

Ferdinand Sampol, head supervisor of the Bureau of Immigration at the NAIA, said that the high turnout of arriving passengers, most of whom were returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and balikbayans, prompted them to add two more computers designated exclusively for the documentation of their arrival.

Sampol said he also issued an order for immigration examiners to expedite the facilitation of returning OFWs passing through the three special lanes to alleviate the congestion at the NAIA Terminal I international arrival area.

While they had braced for the 20 percent jump in the number of passengers transiting through NAIA due to the Holy Week break, Sampol said the increase in arrivals yesterday and expectedly in the next few days was still notably higher than in previous years.

"We are doing our best to expedite the processing to avoid congestion, but it is very hard dahil sobrang dami talaga especially kapag nagkakasabay ang mga arriving flights," Sampol told The Star in an interview yesterday.

NAIA I serves the international passenger terminal for arriving and departing passengers of 32 local and foreign airlines.

Philippine Airlines (PAL) has exclusive use of NAIA Terminal II (Centennial Terminal) for their international and domestic flights.

He said they cannot add immigration lanes to accommodate the thousands of arriving passengers because of space limitations at NAIA Terminal I.

"In times like these, we always think of NAIA Terminal III, na sana makalipat na kami dun," Sampol said.

It can be recalled that the government had planned to hold a "soft opening" for the controversial terminal last March 31, but this was called off when a 100-square meter portion of the ceiling at the facility’s arrival lobby hall area collapsed in a heap of debris last March 27, or four days before the test run.

Making matters harder for the BI-NAIA, Sampol said, was that while there was a high number of arriving passengers, there was also a parallel increase in departing international passengers with many Filipinos going abroad to spend the long Holy Week break in neighboring countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok and the shopping cities of China such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Xiamen.

Sampol said that many Filipinos were going to Asian countries on the low-priced package tours being offered by many travel agencies.

"Apart from the high number of arriving passengers from international flights, we also have to process the huge number of departures of international flight passengers," he said. "We expect the high number of departing and arriving international passengers to continue even until next week."

Sampol called on all passengers who will take international flights abroad to go to the airport early to avoid missing their flights.