PARANAQUE CITY, Jan. 17 (PIA) -- Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano is urging the public to report any irregularities in the DFA’s passport application service to have it investigated promptly by the agency.
Cayetano made the appeal, following the ceremonial release of the first batch of passports that are valid for 10 years at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)-Office of Consular Affairs Building at the Aseana Complex.
Hindi po namin binabalewala iyon (mga ulat ng iregularidad). Hindi namin sinasabing wala, sa Facebook lang may nagbebenta. Ang sinasabi po namin sa inyo… give us the evidence or give us the lead,” Cayetano said.
He said they are closely monitoring even the DFA’s social media accounts for important feedbacks or leads.
At the same time, the official announced more reforms to further improve the delivery of consular services to the public.
“The issuance of passports that will be valid for 10 years is among the passport reforms in consular services that we are undertaking in line with the President’s commitment to improve the delivery of services to the public,” Cayetano said.
“We would like to thank the President, the Senate and the House of Representatives for Republic Act 10928 that extended the validity of the Philippine passport to 10 years,” he added.
Under Department Order No. 010-2017 (Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act No. 10928 (2017), passports valid for 10 years would be issued to Filipinos 18 years old and above. He said Filipinos under 18 years would still be issued five-year valid passports.
He said the 10-year passport will still cost P950 for regular processing of 10 working days, and P1,200 for express processing of 7 working days.
The DFA also launched its “Passport on Wheels” mobile service, and later this year will open several consular offices in the provinces.
“That is why the DFA is now focused on more efficient processing of passports. We are increasing our capacity to process by adding more people, adding more machines, and adding more processing centers all over the country,” he said.
Cayetano said the DFA is also planning to introduce an e-payment system during the first quarter of 2018 that will allow passport applicants to pay the processing fee through banks and other platforms.
“The setting up of an e-payment system is expected to streamline the application process, increase show-up rates, and defeat fixers,” he added.
DFA produced 3,712,420 passports in 2017. This is 602,806 or 19.38 perent more than the passports produced in 2016. With the Passport on Wheels, additional consular offices and the e-payment system, DFA is confident that it can reach and service more applicants. (EPC/JCP/PIA-NCR)
0 Comments