Philippine Immigration review: I hope that I could be refunded or compensated since I had to spend for another ticket.

Last February 11, 2023, I was supposed to fly to Singapore under the Scoot airlines on the 7:40pm flight. But, because of the very poor and unfair service of the Philippine Immigration, I missed my flight and had no other choice but to book a new one without any form of compensation from the Philippine Immigration.

I arrived at the airport at around 5:00pm after a 2-hour drive from our house due to the heavy traffic. As soon as I arrived, I did the necessary steps like paying for the travel tax and the check-in which took me 2 hours or more.

After that, I had to line up to the immigration. It was full of people so it took me a while to be served. As soon as I arrived, I gave the officer my passport and the boarding pass.

She asked me details like, where I am bound to and if I would go there as a tourist. She asked me for the purpose of my visit and I said it's for a vacation and a family visit.

She asked me about my work and told her I work as an online teacher.

Then she asked me why I did not come home on the date I declared when I left to Singapore last June 2022. I told her I studied. (I took a certificate course during the time.) She did not say anything else nor asked me for any proof of documents so I thought everything was okay since I was never asked in any of my travels before. I was always allowed to leave without a questions all the time.

Then, I was referred to TCEU for interview. I thought that having the interview would make it easier for me as I just needed to answer their questions. I never thought that it will take me more than an hour in the office.

When I arrived in the TCEU office, there were already 7-8 people inside including me. I noticed that there were only 2 officers interviewing the people and it's taking a while for one interview. On top of the people who are queueing up, there are some who are allowed to cut in line (OFWs who the immigration just asked for validation of some sort) They allow them to cut in line since they said it's just fast.

At first, I was relaxed since I still have some time before my flight. When I was starting run out of time, like 30 minutes before my flight, I have begun to be nervous. The Scoot personnel assigned to our flight went to the office to look for 3 of us, passengers of the flight who were referred to TCEU.

The Scoot personnel also tried to inform the officers inside about the flight and the remaining time that the plane can wait. One passenger also asked if it is already his turn but the officer just turned him down saying that our names will just be called. (They got our passports with them and it served as a queue)

One immigration officer who just clocked in for work, started collecting passports again for the next batch. We asked if we could be served since our plane is about to leave. He asked me if I already waited long enough like an hour and I said I did. He said they were following the queue. He even asked me to ask the other passengers if it was okay with them to let me go on ahead. I asked the other passengers (He was there and he saw) and they said it was okay. But this did not result to our being interviewed.

5 more minutes before the plane left, the personnel again went to the officers to let them know. I saw from the glass window that the officer acknowledged it but to no avail started to serve us who were on that flight. Instead, she called another person based on the queue.

At last, after a one passenger finished the interview, my name was called.

The immigration officer asked for the details of my 6 months stay in Singapore. He asked me about it and asked for IDs or proof of my study in Singapore. I gave him the details of my study, the details of my family status in Singapore. In the middle of the interview he said he wanted to let me know that I was already offloaded and the plane already left.

When I heard it, I was just so shocked that I was not able to say anything anymore. The officer then just told me he will allow me to leave. I was too shocked to even asked him what to do now since my plane left me. (It was just now that I realized that I should have asked him about it)

After that, I just followed the instructions of the Scoot personnel as to how to go about my luggages. I was told also to go back to the travel tax to refund. When I tried to talk to any customer service in the airport about the refund of the airfare since it was not my fault I missed the plane, I was just told that the government / immigration will not refund or compensate for the ticket.

The immigration officer just said his sorry and nothing more.

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