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A House lawmaker on Wednesday questioned the revised Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) departure formalities for Filipinos headed abroad, saying that it was “too strict” and “too difficult to acquire”.

During the House Committee on Appropriations’ deliberation on the proposed budget of the Department of Justice (DOJ) for 2024, OFW Rep. Marissa Magsino raised the issue that several Filipinos who were internationally bound complained about the requirements that Immigration officers will have to check to ensure they would not become victims of human trafficking.

Magsino pointed out that passengers who are sponsored in other countries by relatives of the first civil degree must submit an original copy of their birth or marriage certificates which are issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

She added that those who were sponsored by relatives on the fourth civil degree had to show an original affidavit of support and authentication of the Philippine consular official in the country where their sponsor resides, which she deemed as a “heavy requirement”.

“The new requirements seem to be too strict and too difficult to acquire, requiring more time and expenses for our travelers and their sponsors abroad,” Magsino argued.

“It is not easy and entails a lot of inconvenience for our travelers. Especially the requirement that asks them to get authentication from the consular offices. We are receiving complaints and everybody is trying hard to reach our office because of this system of IACAT,” she added.

Magsino said the new requirements may cause “further delay in processing the documents of our travelers” and could be a “potential source of corruption” for Bureau of Immigration (BI) officials including their “baseless offloading and extortion activities”.

Magsino said that she had mentioned this issue in her privilege speech, “noting that oftentimes our guidelines are excuses for illegal activities”.

“We have to preserve the ease of traveling for our travelers with respect to their constitutional right to travel,” she said.

In response, Nicholas Ty, the undersecretary-in-charge for IACAT, said they are considering simplifying the departure guidelines and that they will ask their officials in other countries to speed up the release of the OFWs’ documents.

“TWG (technical working group) has considered simplifying the requirements of the departure formalities for different situations. For example, we removed a requirement from the Commission on Filipino Overseas for Filipinos with foreign partners,” Ty said.

“However, the requirements mentioned by Congressman Magsino remained because the TWG has determined that it is important, especially if the traveler’s sponsor are distant relatives or someone with no relation to them, to establish their support and relationship with the sponsor,” he added.

“The DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) is part of the IACAT, and they are also part of those who crafted the departure formalities in the TWG. We will talk to our foreign posts abroad and tell them to expedite the documents needed by our OFWs so their relatives can sponsor their trip,” he said.

The IACAT is set to implement its revised departure formalities in September in a bid to curb human trafficking incidents.

Under the new guidelines, passengers must present to Immigration officials a passport valid for six months from their departure, a valid visa, a boarding pass, and a roundtrip ticket if needed.

Additional documents will be required for sponsored trips depending on the passenger’s relationship with their sponsor. Jaspearl Tan/DMS