MANILA -- Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Jaime Morente thanked the House of Representatives for approving on final reading House Bill No. 8850 or the “Bureau of Immigration Modernization Act”.

In a statement, Morente thanked members of congress for approving the proposed law, with 209 affirmative votes, zero negative, and no abstention.

Morente earlier expressed his appreciation to congress for naming the proposed law as one of the important measures identified by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).

The new law seeks to modernize structures and mechanisms necessary for the administration of immigration laws, and to professionalize immigration service by instituting a rigid system for screening and selection of officials and employees.

“We thank Congress for seeing the importance of updating our law,” said Morente. “The prevailing law has been there since the 1940s, and many of its provisions are already outdated. This new law will reorganize the structure of the BI, specify responsibilities, define visa categories, put in safeguards for checks and balances, and improve the salaries of our personnel,” he added. (BI)