BI launches accreditation center

To further improve its frontline services and eradicate red tape, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) has established a new center charged with screening and providing accreditation to the hundreds of travel agencies and law offices that transact business in the agency.

Immigration Commissioner Nonoy Libanan recently issued a memorandum order creating the BI Accreditation Center headed by BI Associate Commissioner Roy Almoro and assigning a five-man team of immigration employees who will man and operate the center.

Libanan said the creation of the accreditation center is part of the bureau’s thrust of giving quality services to the transacting public, especially to foreigners who are the agency’s main clientele.

“In line with our continuing effort of giving good governance and to see to it that utmost attention is being given to foreigners and to the general public, the bureau has professionalized the field of giving services to its target clients,” Libanan added.

Almoro, who also heads the bureau’s composite committee for good governance, said the accreditation center will be in-charge of screening and investigating the profile and background of all travel agencies and law offices that seeking accreditation and authority to transact at the bureau.

“This center demonstrates our unwavering desire to provide faster and efficient services to our clientele by seeing to it that our stakeholders meet our criteria and standards for public service,” Almoro said.

According to Almoro, the center is the main component of the Bureau of Immigration Communication and Advocacy Network (BI CAN!) that the bureau would launch before the year ends.

He said BI CAN! aims to foster a stronger and harmonious working relationship between the BI and its stakeholders, particularly the travel agencies and law firms that transact in the bureau on behalf of their foreign customers.

Libanan had previously directed the establishment of the BI CAN! through a memorandum order that he issued on May 14 this year.

In his order, he said the network aims to “generate public awareness and better appreciation of the bureau’s accomplishments in good government, particularly in its frontline services.”

He added that BI CAN! will then usher in the institutionalization of stakeholders’ participation in the BI’s affairs through the holding of regular dialogues between them and the agency’s management. (BI News)