The Filipino right to travel

The lack of assistance and compensation in the New Year Ninoy Aquino International Airport glitch early this year left many outraged. – AFP

IT is bad enough that many countries around the world – through strict visa regimes and discriminatory border controls – are restricting our right to travel. But what makes it worse is that our own country is also holding us back.

This is the message we Filipinos get from the recent reports of some being intensively interrogated by our own immigration officers – to the point of being asked to show one’s (school or college) yearbook. Regardless of how common such an incident is, its virality meant that it resonated with many Filipinos – if not with their experiences, then their anxieties.