Philippine soldiers walk near a military C-130 plane as they prepare to go to Tacloban city, at the Villamor Airbase, in Manila, Philippines on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013. Four days after Typhoon Haiyan struck the eastern Philippines, only a trickle of assistance has made it to affected communities. Authorities said at least 9.7 million people in 41 provinces were affected by the devastating typhoon. (MNS photo)
MANILA (Mabuhay) – Starting March 1, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) will be issuing newly designed and printed arrival and departure (AD) cards to passengers.
BI spokesperson Maria Angelica Pedro said they are currently coordinating with airline companies as to the distribution of the cards.
The new AD cards are used to document passengers, for border management and compilation of tourism statistics.
For this year, the BI will be printing 10 million each for arrival and departure cards. The AD cards are printed at the National Printing Office (NPO).
She explained that the cards are color-coded, for arrival cards the heading is color blue while the departure cards is color red.
For his part, BI Commissioner Siegfred Mison said the design and data fields of the cards are aligned with the existing computer systems – the upgraded BI Information System (BIIS).
“Even the size of the color-coded forms is aligned with that of the standard passport page,” he added.
The BI and the Department of Tourism are equally shouldering the printing cost.
Pedro said some of the information such as the date of birth and nationality will no longer be printed at the AD card.
The back of the card is blank, where immigration officers will sign and write a remark if there are questions in the documents of a particular passenger. (MNS)