The proposed Civil Aviation and Immigration Security Services (CAISS) project is designed to enhance the Philippine government’s existing border security systems rather than duplicate them, according to Nate Carpenter, chief technology officer of Securiport LLC.
In an online interview with reporters on the sidelines of the 21st International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Traveller Identification Programme (TRIP) symposium in Montreal, Canada, Carpenter addressed concerns that the project could overlap with government-funded and operated systems.
“This is actually not a duplication at all,” Carpenter said. “We built our system at Securiport to fit into the government’s ecosystem.”
Governments have already purchased technologies and established systems, he said.
Securiport’s tools are designed to work within that ecosystem while adding capabilities, information, and risk-identification tools.
“They do not replace the systems that are there. They enhance the systems that are there,” he said. “We look at it as multiplying the government’s investment that they’ve already made.”
Carpenter spoke during the September 22-24 annual event, which brought together member states and stakeholders from passport and civil-registry offices, border and law-enforcement agencies, aviation security and public-health authorities, airlines and airports, international organizations, and industry.
The symposium explored ways to make international travel more seamless, secure, and efficient.
“Putting Trust into Practice: Towards Trusted Travel Identity for All,” he said was the theme.
Discussions focused on traveler identification, border security, privacy safeguards, and system interoperability, as well as alignment with ICAO standards.
Beyond an API upgrade
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) earlier said the current Advance Passenger Information (API) system, launched in March 2025, covers 97.88% of international flights nationwide.
The proposed CAISS project, however, goes beyond shifting from batch API to interactive API.
While API provides authorities with information on who is expected to arrive, CAISS is envisioned as an intelligence layer that verifies travelers and helps turn the information into a controlled, traceable border decision.
The BI said the shift from batch API to interactive API is only one component of the broader CAISS modernization, which is intended to deliver more integrated and comprehensive border-security capabilities.
The ₱10.7 billion public-private partnership project also seeks to integrate Passenger Name Record (PNR) data, which becomes available four to 48 hours before departure.
PNR can include booking patterns, payment methods, email addresses, travel frequency and seat assignments, providing additional information that authorities can use to identify potential transnational crimes before travelers board.
The BI said cash payments, for example, can be a red flag in assessing potential risks. But API and PNR are only part of the broader CAISS system.
Integration key to border security upgrade
The proposed strength of CAISS lies in its integration, allowing authorities to cross-reference travel patterns, social media activity, and previous records.
It would also enable one-to-many biometric matching, in which facial, fingerprint, and iris scans are checked against historical records. Current systems generally use one-to-one verification, matching one passport against one person.
The integrated system would not be limited to airports. It is eventually expected to cover seaports, land borders, and traditional sea routes in the southern Philippines, extending border-security capabilities across the archipelago.
E-gates, automated border control
Carpenter said e-gates and automated border control are also part of a modern border-security system.
“It allows—we call them automated border control or ABC—because it’s essential to processing large volumes of travelers that you have e-gates, that you have electronic kiosks, for example, and that you have contactless technology to allow people just to walk across through a corridor to the border,” he said.
“All of these have their own purpose,” Carpenter added.
He said Securiport’s system integrates with the BI’s current e-gates project.
“Our system integrates with e-gates. We are happy if the government has them,” Carpenter said, adding that Securiport has done this with multiple clients.
Carpenter’s statement provides context to an online news report about the BI’s September 19 bidding for Phase II of its e-gates expansion, worth ₱1.347 billion. The bidding raised questions about how the project differs from the separate ₱10.7 billion CAISS project, which also includes automated immigration and biometric technology.
Security and facilitation
The Bureau of Immigration said the additional capabilities are important because one-to-many matching could flag discrepancies, such as a face matching a different name.
Integration could serve both security and facilitation. According to the BI, pre-vetting passengers through API, PNR, and biometric data would allow authorities to identify travelers who require closer scrutiny in advance, while enabling lower-risk passengers to pass through e-gates more quickly and helping reduce long queues.
The BI said treating API and PNR as separate tools misses the point, as the unsolicited CAISS project—which underwent an uncontested Swiss challenge—is designed to bring both data streams together on a single platform.
Like the API system, which complies with ICAO biometric and border-security standards and practices, CAISS includes advanced passenger information systems, automated border control with contactless face pass, biometric kiosks, criminal record search engines, and deception-detection tools.
ICAO is a United Nations specialized agency based in Montreal that sets standards for international civil aviation.
The BI hopes to begin implementation as early as December this year or in 2027, with full modernization targeted within two to three years and a four-year refresh cycle over a 20-year period.
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