DOJ eyes AI profiling vs. tra icking

By Rey E. Requejo and Joel E. Zurbano

THE Department of Justice (DOJ) is seriously considering the use of artifi cial intelligence (AI) profi ling at airports to curb mounting cases of human traffi cking in the country.

Meanwhile, the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) has assured the public of its commitment to complete the electrical system audit meant to significantly enhance airport operations.

“Our profiling, we may need to use artificial intelligence,” Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said.

“We’ll try to see if we can use artificial intelligence to vet many people who want to leave, especially those prone to human trafficking,” said the DOJ chief, whose agency led the first coordination meeting for the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Task Force Against Trafficking.

The United Nations Global Programme Against Trafficking in Human Beings listed the Philippines as one of the largest migrant countries in the world. This sizable migrant population includes some illegal migrants and victims of human trafficking.

“Many people are earning from selling people who are looking for work. Some people believe that living abroad is much better than staying in the Philippines,” Remulla said. The Dubai International Airport in 2018 began piloting a “smart tunnel” that uses a system of 80 cameras to scan travelers’ faces and irises, allowing preregistered passengers to verify their identity in seconds without having to present passports or other documents.

Meanwhile, Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Norman Tansingco said they offload around 20 departing and arriving passengers at the NAIA alone on a daily basis.

Profiling and processing travelers within the international standard of 45 seconds per passenger is also a challenge for immigration officers, “particularly when a terminal is overflowing with passengers, Tansingco said. “It is not a secret that NAIA T3 experiences daily congestion. The job of the IO (Immigration Officer) is not the mechanical stamping of arrival and departure. An IO is given only 45 seconds to decide either to clear or stop the departure of a passenger,” he said.

Speaker lauds Portuguese bid to help PH fight ASF

By Maricel V. Cruz

SPEAKER Ferdinand Martin Romualdez on Wednesday welcomed the offer of Portugal to help the Philippines eradicate African Swine Flu (ASF) that has been wreaking havoc on the country’s hog industry. The Speaker also cited Portugal’s willingness to open its doors to Filipino workers.

The twin offers were relayed to Romualdez by Portuguese non-resident Ambassador to the Philippines, Maria Joào Falcào Poppe Lopes Cardoso, when she paid him a courtesy call at the posh Manila Golf and Country Club. Romualdez committed to endorse the matter to the concerned agencies of the Executive department for appropriate action even as he hailed Portugal’s offer of assis- tance and other initiatives to expand bilateral trade and cooperation in technology and defense.

“These propositions are of great mutual interest to both countries,” Romualdez noted.

According to Ambassador Cardoso, who is the concurrent Portuguese Ambassador to Indonesia and Brunei, a company in her country is “willing to make a donation of expertise and to travel to the Philippines to support eradicate swine flu.”

She noted that Portugal has extensive expertise on the matter, being one of only two countries in Europe that successfully eradicated ASF. Reports earlier said that as of June 1, there were 15 provinces in the Philippines that have active ASF cases, although there were fewer detections in the past few weeks.