MANILA -- The Bureau of Immigration (BI) announced it will soon re-launch its Electronic Gate System (EGate) project for Filipinos arriving from abroad in order to fast track the immigration processing time for travelers and avoid long queues at the airports during the coming holidays.

In a statement, Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said he has ordered the BI’s port operations division (POD) to revive the E-gate scheme in time for the onset of the Christmas season this December.

Launched in August 2018, the bureau’s E-gates have been in operation until March 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic prompted the BI management to suspend the scheme.

There were fears that passengers could be exposed to and contaminated by the virus as the scheme requires passengers to have their fingers biometrically scanned by machines before they could pass through the e-gates.

Morente, however, said that with the continuing drop in the number of Covid-19 cases in the country the BI can now re-launch the project for the convenience of the traveling public and the bureau’s frontline personnel.

"We are also implementing strict regular disinfection of the area to prevent transmission," said Morente.

He disclosed that use of the e-gates cuts the processing time for passengers from the present 45 seconds to only 15 to 8 seconds.

Aside from biometic scanning, the e-gates have other modern security features such as facial recognition, bar code reading, and smart card recognition.

It can also detect passengers with derogatory records, including wanted fugitives and those who are in the immigration blacklist, watch list and hold departure list.

Atty. Carlos Capulong, BI acting ports operations chief, said he has ordered his technical staff to initially conduct a dry run of the e-gates currently installed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) prior to its full operationalization by end of November.

“These e-gates are intended only for Filipinos, especially returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs),” Capulong said. “However, children, senior citizens on wheelchairs and other handicapped travelers may be serviced by a special lane".

Other e-gates procured under the P329-million project, which was jointly funded by the national government and International Air Transport Association (IATA), were also installed at the international airports in Clark, Pampanga and Mactan, Cebu. (BI)