MikeLigalig.com

Rudy Santos
The Philstar

The arrival of four international flights, bearing more than 1,000 passengers, within minutes of each other past midnight yesterday overwhelmed the immigration counters at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), officials said.

Most of the passengers were overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and balikbayans, while the rest were tourists of various nationalities. The passengers waiting for their documents to be processed occupied the whole immigration area and spilled over to the duty-free shop.

Two flights were from the United States, while the other two flights were from South Korea and Hong Kong.

It took the nine immigration counters, each manned by two inspectors, more than 30 minutes to process the papers of all the passengers.

NAIA general manager Alfonso Cusi and immigration supervisor Ferdinand Sampol agreed to add more inspectors during peak hours, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 9 p.m. to 12 midnight, to avoid congestion in the immigration area.

They said they were expecting a heavy influx of passengers by December, not in mid-November.

Under the new measures that will be implemented at NAIA, returning Filipinos will be asked to fill up immigration cards while still on the plane. To get past the immigration counter, each passenger is only required to present the card and their passport to immigration inspectors.

Sampol said foreign nationals will have to have their passports examined and answer a few questions, but the process would not take very long.

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