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Investigate visa-upon-arrival scheme: Aside from investigating the “pastillas” scam, Sen. Imee Marcos also calls for an investigation on the visa-upon-arrival scheme which spiked the arrival of foreign nationals into the country since 2018. Marcos, during the hybrid deliberation on the proposed 2021 budget of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) Friday, November 20, 2020 said the Senate investigation on the “pastillas” scam led to the suspension in February of this year of the visa-upon-arrival scheme but immigration officials and employees who benefitted from such move should be unmasked. Sen. Sonny Angara, Finance Committee chairman, said since the implementation of visa-upon-arrival, approximately 27,000 foreigners, mostly Chinese nationals, arrived in the country in 2018 and it drastically increased to 110,434 in 2019. Before it was suspended in February this year, 19,192 were given visa-upon-arrival. “(BI) is one of the agencies that has had an increase in its budget. Perhaps, in addition to the pastillas scam, the controversial visa-upon-arrival issue should also be investigated by the Bureau,” Marcos said.(Screen grab/Senate PRIB)