The Bureau of Immigration is now ready to deploy personnel at the Bacolod-Silay Airport  to help facilitate international flights, Commissioner Siegfred Mison told Bacolod Rep. Evelio  Leonardia, a press release from his office said yesterday.

In a letter to Leonardia, Mison said his office is ready to deploy officers to the BSA to conduct immigration inspection courtesies for incoming and outgoing international flights.

Last month, the airport installed immigration booths in preparation for the foreign flights, the first of which would have been the chartered groups from South Korea.

While the private sector is still threshing out the details for the Korean flights to Bacolod, Leonardia said the government has already readied the BSA for international arrivals and departures.

 “We are ready,” Leonardia said, adding that  he is optimistic that  these international flights will commence soon. “If not these Incheon groups, I am sure there will be others,”  he said.

Leonardia and  former congressman John Orola, president of the West Visayas Tourism Council, had lobbied for the installation of the CIQ, or the Customs Immigration and Quarantine system, which are needed to process international flights.*

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