EDITORIAL - Diploma, yearbook not needed

The latest irregularity revealed involving the Ninoy Aquino International Airport happened when a passenger missed her international flight after an over-zealous immigration officer decided to submit her to intense and irrelevant questioning.

While the incident was confirmed to have happened last December yet, it was only brought to the attention of the public recently.

According to passenger the immigration officer asked her more questions than the usual, flagged her for a secondary interview, and even asked her if she had a yearbook or a photo to prove she had graduated from college. As a result she missed her flight.

In January the incident was repeated again with another passenger who had previously worked in Dubai. She was questioned endlessly about her work as an overseas worker and also flagged for secondary interview. She also missed her flight.

While the Bureau of Immigration said the immigration officer involved in the first incident has been reassigned, they had yet to comment on the second incident. What is sure is that one doesn’t need to bring a college diploma or a yearbook when lining up for immigration processing.

We understand if the immigration officers involved in the incident were trying to prevent human smuggling. As it stands right now, the airport doesn’t have a good reputation after it was embroiled in several attempts to smuggle Filipinos outside the country, including the exact opposite of what they are doing now --breezing people through immigration processing.

However, there is a fine line between doing their duty and just going off the rails on a power trip. It is easy for anyone given a certain degree of power to overstep his or her boundaries. Add to that the feeling of importance when one can actually say yes or no to someone who wants to go abroad.

It may not even be about power. Jealousy is a very strong human emotion. We cannot help but ask if some immigration officers, confined to glass boxes all day reviewing documents of people who are about to leave on vacations, family trips, a new job abroad, or just a new environment, are feeling just a bit envious and want to rain on their parade.

Of course, we may be wrong, but considering those two incidents --as well as others not made public-- we just cannot help but wonder why it is that some immigration officers give others a hard time.