Thus said the officer of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) Field Office at the Marquee Mall here who was the subject of a letter-complaint from her peers.
This, even as she denied all the allegations and said the complainants are holding a grudge against her.
Janice Christine De Jesus- Corres, Acting Alien Control Officer (ACO) of the BI Field Office here faced the media on Wednesday and said she was surprised while at the same time saddened why her colleagues filed a complaint against her and wanted her investigated.
“We have our regular meetings at least once a month where I constantly remind them that we are a team,” Corres said.
“Sabay-sabay po kame nag-umpisa sa immigration at naging kaibigan ko na sila. Nakakalungkot this happened (We started at the same time at the immigration and I have become friends with them. It’s very sad this happened),” she lamented.
Corres said she heads the 12- man BI field office here and all of the complainants are her subordinates. She denied all their allegations and said there are processes to be followed in extending the stay of tourists or temporary visitors.
“Before it goes to me for approval, it goes through the process,” she explained.
“Lahat naman po yan naka letter- directive hindi po verbal (All of these are in a letter-directive and not verbal),” she said.
Corres also denied that official receipts are issued even without paying the actual payments. Step-by-step There is a step-bystep process that is personally accomplished by the applicants, she explained.
The first step is when the applicant for a visa extension will personally sign the application form after completing it until payment is made and “everything is remitted on time. You can check it with the banks,” she said.
Corres detailed the process saying “the first step is receiving, then preparation of payment slip, then a check if it conforms, then a check on the validity of the date, then the information is logged, then payment to the cashier, then the issuance of OR, then putting implementation through visa sticker in the passport, then approval, then releasing.
All of the steps are via barcode and computerized and logged.” She said each employee affixes their signatures on each step.
“That’s not true sir,” Corres said on allegations that she allows visa extensions even without the personal appearance of the applicants.
“They are required to register and be issued a number. Everything is received and captured by computer. It’s logged and saved and sent to our central office and entered into the database,” she explained.
“The applicants file them personally. It needs their personal appearance for their pictures and thumb prints, she said.
They (tourists or temporary visitors) have an option to apply for one or two months extension of stay, she said.
“The requirements and the process is very tedious because the applicants have a checklist to follow,” she added.
“I’m just doing my job,” Corres said.
Fees
She explained that a schedule of fess is set and each application depends on the arrival and the entry visa via what was approved by the Philippine embassy and if how many days they will stay, their age and their nationality.
Corres said the lowest visa extension is from P2,430 and it goes up to around P7,000 plus.
She said visa-required nationals like the Chinese cannot enter the Philippines without an entry visa that they applied with and approved by the Philippine embassy.
They get seven, 14 , 20 , 21, 30 and up to 59 days. Those are the allowed stay upon entry and then they have an option to apply for a onemonth or two months temporary visitors’ visa extension from any BI field office in the Philippines, she explained.
Meanwhile, Corres denied that she was a partner of Shadow Travel Agency based in Mabalacat City and challenged
her detractors to check the records from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The BI Field Office here caters to Bulacan, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija and Pampanga. Corres said Clark investors and those with work or study permits are being served by the Clark One-Stop- Shop BI office inside the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) building.
“The temporary visitors or guests or those without working permits that are not working or have not applied for conversion are being served by the field office,” she said.
“I am ready and willing to face a proper investigation for the truth to come out,” she said.
