Malacanang has approved the use of the Bureau of Immigration express lane fees and charges to augment salaries of the agency's personnel for this year.

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, by authority of President Rodrigo Duterte, signed on September 27 Memorandum Order No. 39 adopting the guidelines for the augmentation pay of BI personnel under MO No. 24 (s. 2018) as guidelines for BI Special Provision 1 of General Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2019.

Medialdea had to issue MO 39 after the previous memorandum expired on Dec. 31 last year and for failure of Congress to pass yet an Immigration Modernization Law, which upgrades the current compensation system of the agency.

"There is a need for an interim measure to augment the salaries of BI employees, in recognition of the indispensability of their functions, the apparent disparity between the basic pay of BI employees and those of agencies performing comparable functions, and to promote continuous and unhampered delivery of basic government services," read MO 39, a copy of which was released to the media on Tuesday.

Medialdea said the order shall be effective from Jan. 1 until Dec. 31 this year or until the passage of an Immigration Modernization Law, or a law which would increase the base pay rates of BI personnel, whichever comes first. Celerina Monte/DMS