THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) Davao City is currently under fire after a video, showing its employees supposedly ignoring a foreign client, circulated online.
The video, uploaded by Facebook user Janelyn Nilo last March 28, earned the ire of netizens. It narrated that some employees of BI were having a birthday blowout for a co-employee during office hours.
In her post, Nilo questioned the timing of the incident, considering that there are still unattended customers, as seen on the photo she uploaded.
"They're even singing birthday song and laughing and didn't give a damn that a lot of customers waiting and it's only 3:46 p.m. If you check the photo, no one is sitting in every window to entertain costumers. All of us were waiting for them to finish," Nilo said on her post.
In the video, she said, it "was really unacceptable," because a foreign guy went back to inquire why the price for the visa extension suddenly increase.
"Instead (of explaining to him), they called the guard and told the guard: 'Pagawas na guard kay daghan kaayo pangutana.' (Let that man out. He keeps on asking too much questions). What a shame! Is that how they treat customers? No one is allowed to ask question? Instead, they called the guard and told the guard: 'Pagawas na guard ky daghan kaayo pangutana.'" Nilo said in her post.
In an interview Sunday, April 7, Nilo said when they entered the BI office, she and her husband saw that the foreigner, a Russian citizen, was not entertained by any employee.
When the foreigner was sent out, they approached him to ask about the situation. That's when they found out the reason.
"Dili daw sya ginatubag og tarung nga mag-ask lang daw siya ngano nag-increase ang amount nga iya bayaran nga nag-ask man daw siya the day before, lower price raman daw. Then the reason pud nga nag-ask siya questions is para asa to nga amount kay wala man daw nakabutang nga description kung para asa ang nadagdag (The Russian said he was only asking why the visa rate increased since it was lower the day before)." Nilo said.
The foreigner returned when the birthday bash was ongoing.
She then heard that one employee threatened to call the police if he will not leave. This, however, was not captured on the video.
Nilo said she has no update as to what happened next, since they already left the area after visa extension was accommodated. She hesitated uploading the video but since her post went viral, her friends and some netizens also shared similar inconvenient transactions with the agency.
In an interview Monday with the staff of Civil Service Commission (CSC) Davao, the office urged Nilo to hear the reason of the agency and if they are not satisfied, they could file a complaint against BI.
The CSC likewise refused to comment on the issue pending investigation, saying it has not yet heard the side of the BI and since there is no formal complaint yet lodged at their office.
If found guilty, it could be a ground for the filing of an administrative case, the CSC said.
VoxPop Davao tried to get BI's statement on the matter but it has not replied yet as of this posting.
