Locsin lauds Cayetano for addressing passport woes

MANILA, Philippines — Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. has lauded his predecessor Alan Peter Cayetano for his efforts to address the huge backlog in passport applications.

“A lot of the frontline work done by the DFA so well is done by contractuals like passports which Alan did so much to improve,” Locsin said in a post on Twitter.

Locsin, who served as the country’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York, replaced Cayetano after the latter formalized his candidacy as congressman representing Taguig last month.

Cayetano has expressed his intention to be the House of Representatives speaker.

Under Cayetano, various programs were implemented to reduce the backlog for passport applications at the DFA.

Among his programs include the opening additional 10,000 slots daily, reducing the waiting time of applicants in securing appointment slots to as early as two weeks from the previous two to three months.

The waiting time for the release of passports was also reduced to as short as six days.

Data earlier showed that the capacity for processing passport applications increased from 9,500 in May last year to almost 20,000 this year. 

Additional applications were also processed at newly opened consular offices and the passport-on-wheels mega vans that were deployed in different parts of the country.

The DFA also launched an e-payment system to increase capacity and address the issue of fixers selling passport appointment slots.

Operations were also conducted that resulted in the arrest of suspected fixers.

Among the policies implemented include streamlined application requirements and process, redesigned the appointment system and the creation of a feedback mechanism.