Filipino netizens complained that they were questioned by immigration officers for one hour and asked for graduation photo, which led to a missed opportunity.

Filipinos recently expressed dissatisfaction through social media over the overly strict questioning screening of immigration officers at the airport and outrageous document requests. One of the women was asked to show a graduation commemorative publication during college, causing her to miss the flight to Israel.

Tanteras Cham said that she received lengthy questioning at the immigration counter and was eventually asked by officials to provide a graduation commemorative publication. She said through social media: "Who will bring the graduation commemorative publication when traveling abroad? The immigration official asked me if I had brought the graduation commemorative publication or graduation photo. This is outrageous."

After a secondary examination, she was eventually allowed to travel. However, she was too late to board the plane.

In response to the incident, the Immigration Bureau said: "We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause to Filipino passengers and other passengers."

The agency also said it investigated Tanteras's case and would ask the immigration officer who provided her graduation commemorative publication to be removed from her post.

Another passenger, Rie, had a similar experience when he left the country in January this year.

When immigration officials discovered she had previously worked in Dubai, they were asked a lot about her as an overseas Filipino worker (OFW). However, the immigration counter officer seemed dissatisfied with his answer and asked him for a second questioning.

Rie said: "At that time, the queue was already too long because there were a lot of Filipinos who needed to take the second question. I told the immigration official that it was 10 o'clock now and my boarding time was 10:30. Is it too late? The official replied: 'Sorry, you are in line first, you are already number seven."

After about an hour and a half, Rie was allowed to leave the country, but was unable to board the plane. Still, Rie decided to book a new flight to continue her vacation.

Rie has complained to the Ombudsman's Office about serious abuse of power, oppression and harm to the best interests of the service by two immigration officials.

The Migration Board has yet to issue a statement on the Rie case.

However, the agency defended its process of screening outbound passengers, especially in view of cases of human trafficking and illegal recruitment.

"The situation of human trafficking is very different now than before. The people recruited now are professionals with good jobs in the Philippines, who come from good families with good backgrounds and are graduates of big schools," said Dana Sandoval, a spokesman for the Philippine Immigration Service."

According to data from the Immigration Department, a total of 50,509 Filipinos were refused departure in 2022, 26000 of whom were for lack of necessary documents and 392 were involved in human trafficking cases.

The Immigration Bureau reminded that the Philippines wishing to travel abroad must show passports, visas, round-trip air tickets and other supporting documents.

If the passenger's answer is inconsistent with the document, a second questioning will be conducted.

Immigration checks won't necessarily cause passengers to miss flights, says immigration