A public-private partnership aimed at overhauling the Philippines’ border management infrastructure would require international travelers to pay a $4 user fee per trip — meaning a round-trip passenger would shoulder $8, or approximately P480, on top of existing travel taxes.
The Civil Aviation and Immigration Security Services project, known as CAISS, originated from an unsolicited proposal submitted by US-based firm Securiport LLC through the PPP Center of the Philippines in May 2023. The Department of Justice, acting as the designated approving body under the PPP Code, greenlit the proposal on December 2, 2025.
Under the arrangement, Securiport and its local partner will finance, design, build, and maintain the platform without direct cost to the Philippine government. Cost recovery instead falls on travelers, with the fee embedded in airline ticket prices.
“The CAISS is a significant upgrade to the Bureau’s border management capabilities in many years. It combines advanced biometric management and physical security infrastructure under a single, integrated platform, all operated by the Bureau personnel within government-controlled networks and maintained throughout the contract life by the private partner,” according to the Bureau of Immigration’s Project Information Memorandum.
The total project cost is pegged at P10.7 billion, with no government guarantees or subsidies involved. “Investment recovery is through a user fee of $4 per international traveler, built into airline ticket costs. The concession period is 20 years from the commercial operations, after which the assets are transferred to the government,” the BI document stated.
The project, structured under a Build-Train-Maintain-Transfer modality, would cover 11 international airports, one major international seaport, and six mobile border crossing stations.
The BI cited the inadequacy of its current systems as the driving rationale. “Current hardware systems are not the most efficient and processing workflows cannot easily integrate within modern threat databases or international data-sharing platforms. Additionally, the capability to run real-time biometric checks, cross-reference international watchlists or conduct meaningful advance passenger analysis is not at par with the most efficient border control systems in other parts of the world,” the bureau said.
The CAISS platform is designed to cover the full traveler lifecycle — from pre-arrival to departure — built around four pillars: civil infrastructure, technical infrastructure, border control process management, and analytics and risk assessment. Among its planned functions are advance passenger information processing, biometric identity management, social media background checks, travel risk targeting, and secondary screening support.
The BI is targeting a notice of award as early as November this year, pending a mandatory challenge period for the unsolicited proposal.
