No midnight legislation

MANILA, Philippines - In line with your paper’s slogan, ‘The Truth Shall Prevail’ we write to correct the errors in Jess Diaz’ article captioned “Midnight legislation to extend term of BI chief” published in your June 3, 2010 issue.

Diaz’ angles his story on “midnight legislation” and harps on the issue on ‘term extension’ when both are non- issues as far as the Philippine Immigration Act of 2009 is concerned.

Contrary to Diaz’ erroneous assertion, the law is not ‘midnight legislation’. Wanting to amend the outmoded and antiquated 1940 immigration law approved by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Congressman Marcelino Libanan filed as early as the 11th Congress a bill seeking to amend the obsolete 1940 immigration law. He refiled it anew in the 12th and 13th Congress, but unfortunately the law was not passed.

The pending Philippine Immigration Act of 2009 before the 14th Congress was filed as early as August 2007 in both the Senate and House of Representatives. It underwent several committee hearings and various revisions. Consultations were likewise made with various stakeholders, including the employees of the bureau, hence, far from being ‘midnight legislation’.   

Mr. Diaz wrote that new law ‘seeks to extend the term of office of Libanan and his associate commissioners by up ‘to three years’. Evidently, Mr. Diaz did not do his research. The latest bill, after undergoing rigorous revisions at the Senate only gives the present commissioners one year as a transition period, to craft its implementing rules and regulations.

Moreover, if only to prove Diaz wrong, Commissioner Libanan has declared that he will submit a courtesy resignation to the President-apparent, effective June 30, 2010, even if the bill is passed into law.

Further, for Mr. Diaz information, the new immigration law, more than his issue on term extension, seeks to equip the country with a modern law to be more responsive to world trends in tourism and economic development as it provides for additional visa classification to foreigners. Further, it seeks to strengthen the government’s ability to thwart the entry of undesirable aliens like terrorists, fugitives, drug traffickers and human traffickers. 

Moreover, it will professionalize the bureau and will institutionalize the reforms that transformed the Bureau of Immigration from one of the most corrupt government agency to one of the most efficient, modern and anti- graft compliant as ranked by the Presidential Anti Graft Commission (PAGC).

We hope this letter will set the record straight and let the ‘truth prevail’.