MANILA, (PNA) — Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. will be the guest of honor and speaker when the Bureau of Immigration (BI) celebrates its 73rd founding anniversary this Saturday.
BI Officer-in-Charge Siegfred Mison said Jimenez’ presence at the Sept. 7 anniversary rites would underscore the partnership between the bureau and Department of Tourism (DOT) in efforts to spur development of the tourism industry.
Mison disclosed that the BI has been working closely with the DOT in crafting and implementing policies and programs designed to attract more foreign visitors into the country.
The DOT projects tourist arrivals to reach 5.5 million this year and it expects the number to hit 10 million by 2016.
Only recently, the BI extended from 21 days to 30 days the visa-free entry privileges of nationals from 151 countries in a bid to spur tourist arrivals.
The BI celebrates its anniversary this year in the midst of a major reorganization that Mison started implementing last month as part of efforts to reform and professionalize the bureau.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima appointed Mison Immigration OIC in mid-July after then BI chief Ricardo David Jr. resigned.
So far, some 30 BI officials, including division and section chiefs and alien control officers, were already reassigned to various positions.
Mison said a bureau-wide reshuffle of the rank and file will be implemented later as part of a program to periodically rotate the assignments of employees and thus prevent fraternization which is a usual source of corruption in the service.
A graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1987, Mison served in the military before he studied and obtained his law degree at the Ateneo de Manila University in 1996.
He then earned earned a Masters of Law degree from the University of Southern California in 2006. President Aquino appointed Mison BI associate commissioner in June 2012.
The BI kicked off its anniversary celebration last Sept. 2 with the awarding of plaques of recognition to model employees and two days later a raffle draw was held for members of bureau’s employees’ cooperative.
On Sept. 14, a team of BI personnel will conduct an outreach program at the Hospicio de San Jose in Manila and distribute food, medicines and groceries to 100 indigent children.
The celebration will be capped by sports and fellowship activities on Sept. 21, including fun run, calisthenics, parlor games, and a tree planting activity.