MANILA, PHILIPPINES – About 300 security screening officers will soon be hired by the Office for Transportation Security (OTS) and assigned to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
“We requested the Department of Budget and Management (DMB) to allow us to hire over 1,000 screeners, and they approved 700.
We are just waiting for their go signal to hire 300 initially, and the target is within the first quarter,” OTS officer in charge Jose Briones, Jr. told the Philippine News Agency in an interview Wednesday.
He expressed his hope that they will be able to hire the remaining 400 people this year. Briones pointed out that every checkpoint should have seven people manning it and that the country’s primary entrance needs more screeners.
“When some of them get sick or have an emergency, they do not have a reliever. So we tend to close a checkpoint when they are absent,” he added.
The OTS chief said if they could hire over 1,000, the others would augment the security screening in other airports nationwide.
Briones said he thanked the DBM for enabling them to hire contractually.
It can be recalled that several screeners got involved in the alleged theft, and Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista previously pointed out the low pay that screeners have been getting.
For his part, Briones said he understands their plight and is thinking of their welfare.
As such, he recently promoted over 100 personnel to fill in the positions of those who retired, resigned, and whose contracts were not renewed.
“Raising their status would boost their morale, and of course, the promotion would somehow increase their pay,” Briones said.
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