DFA aims to process 3,000 passports per day

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) will increase its passport processing capacity to 3,000 daily by the middle of the year, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano has announced.

He said increasing the capacity would speed up the passport appointment system from three months to one month.

The DFA is working closely with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for the opening of eight new offices, four new diplomatic posts and 10 vans all over the country with five machines that could process 5,000 more passports daily.

“By middle of the year at the longest we’ll increase our capacity form 19,000 a day to 30,000 a day,” Cayetano told GMA’s State of the Nation on Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile, the DFA said a total of 25,645 passport applicants have been served since the launch of the Passport on Wheels (POW) last Jan. 15.

In the last 45 days, POW has been to 12 cities, eight municipalities and an office of a government-owned and controlled corporation.

The POW delivered services as far north as Laoag City, Ilocos Norte and Capas, Tarlac, and down south to Bay, Laguna and Silang, Cavite.

In the National Capital Region, POW teams visited the cities of Las Piñas, Manila, Muntinlupa, Marikina, Caloocan, Pasig, Mandaluyong and Navotas.

A POW team also catered to the employees of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas main office in Manila.

The Mobile Passport Service of the DFA’s Office of Consular Affairs (OCA), which has been serving the public every Saturday since 2003, accommodated 12,320 passport applicants in 15 locations in January and February 2018.

The OCA main office in ASEANA has been open to passport applications every Saturday since Feb. 10, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Because of the additional day in its operations every week, DFA-ASEANA served 3,554 more passport applicants in the month of February.

In its effort to meet the huge demand for 10-year passports, the DFA will soon open additional eight consular offices in key cities and provinces, and implement an epayment system.

Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested in Parañaque and Pasay City on Monday four alleged passports fixers at the DFA.

NBI director Dante Gierran said yesterday that suspects Pedro Abulencia, Marlon Fria, Eddie Boy Awaao and Lito Awaa were caught selling early passport appointment slots ranging from P2,500 to P6,000.

The suspects were nabbed after passport applicants reported that the suspects were urging them to buy the appointment slots for additional fees outside the DFA-ASEANA office.