MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Immigration wants to make its services accessible to foreign nationals by setting up a frontline office at the central business district of Makati City.

Immigration Commissioner Siegfred Mison said the agency has been scouting for a building in Makati to house the immigration personnel in its frontline operations.

“We would want our services like processing of renewal and extension of visas of foreign nationals to be accessible. They can no longer have the excuse that our office is too far from them,” Mison said in a recent interview with reporters.

The BI main office is located in Intramuros, Manila, while it has field offices in other regions in the country.

“Our main office will still be here in Intramuros. My office will still be here. Just a part of operations will just be transferred to Makati to make it conducive and convenient foreign nationals,” Mison said.

Makati is the place of choice, according to Mison, since it is the middle of the metropolis’ urban centers.

“We think most of our foreign nationals stay there since it’s the country’s financial capital. It is also relatively near the Ninoy Aquino International Airport,” the BI chief said.

Mison said the agency would like to see the office set up by 2014 in line with its plan to hire 200 additional immigration officers to be assigned in the country’s ports of entry.

The immigration commissioner said all the plans of the agency have been wired with the Department of Tourism’s goal of 10 million arrivals by 2016, two years from now.

The 200 new officers would fill the current personnel shortage of the immigration bureau, Mison said.

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