A Department of Justice official confirmed Wednesday that the reshuffling of personnel at the Bureau of Immigration will continue to further improve the agency’s services.
Atty. Mico Clavano, DoJ Assistant Secretary and spokesperson, said the move was Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla’s marching orders to the recently-appointed BI chief.
“The marching orders by Secretary Remulla to BI chief Norman Tansingco is to clean up the agency. And the first thing that he has to do is to make a study of the structure and the plantilla of the Bureau of Immigration. So, there has been a little change in the structures and we hope to continue this reshuffling and cleansing within the Bureau of Immigration,” Clavano said during yesterday’s Laging Handa briefing.
He said they are presently looking into the different BI positions and assessing the personnel holding positions before streamlining and professionalizing operations.
“So, we need to study those positions first, those people who are stationed there in those positions and then we can see how we can move the structure, to be more streamlined, more professional. And we also have plans or programs to digitize some processes at the Bureau of Immigration,” he said in Filipino.
Meanwhile, Clavano said Remulla is pursuing reforms at the DoJ to provide real justice in real time.
The first thing that Remulla did when he took the DoJ helm was to change the appeals process by expediting the procedure of resolving petitions for review.
“These are the appeals of those involved in the prosecution. So, when the parties do not agree, the resolution of the prosecutor to the DoJ is what is called a petition for review. And when we enter the new administration, we have a backlog of 26,000 cases,” he said.
The appeals process reform will ensure smooth and faster handling of cases, he said.
“And we are happy to report within this first 100 days, zero po ang backlog from 1 July,” he said.
The DoJ, he said, crafted a joint program between the PNP and the prosecutors to hasten the close coordination for the handling of evidence, choose witnesses, and eventually testify on the criminal cases.
“That’s the problem we saw in the past, sometimes the evidence that the PNP gives to the prosecutors is weak. So now, under the leadership of Secretary Remulla, the police and the prosecutors will work together to prepare solid and credible evidence,” Clavano said.