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Friday, March 29, 2024

DFA opens more slots for passport applicants

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Thousands of appointment slots are now available to those who wish to apply for and renew their passports, after the Department of Foreign Affairs implemented sweeping reforms.

DFA Assistant Secretary Frank Cimafranca of the Office of Consular Affairs said an additional 94,350 slots were opened from July to August, while thousands more will be opened tomorrow, Aug. 25, for September appointments.

Cimafranca said of the slots opened last month, 62,450 additional slots were made available after the DFA increased the consular offices’ appointment quotas, while the remaining 31,900 came from the cleaning up of bogus appointments created by unscrupulous individuals.

“The goal is to serve as many people as we can efficiently and effectively, so those slots had to be cleaned up. And that’s what we did,” he said in a statement released by the Taguig Local Government, an agency that currently helps the DFA to disseminate announcement and statement from the agency and DFA Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano.

He said the increase in additional slots has been complemented by an increase in personnel in charge of processing documents.

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For example, in the Aseana office, the DFA’s main processing center for passports, he said the increase in personnel has resulted in a 73.6 percent increase in the capacity to accept and process daily appointments—from 1,900 to 3,300.

The increase in personnel has also led to the moving up to earlier dates of about 900 appointments, and has resulted in the reduction of suspended applications under investigation—from 33,000 on Aug. 2 to zero (0) as of Aug. 18, Cimafranca said.

“Let’s take one step at a time. But so far, so good,” he added.

To prevent the unnecessary use of slots, Cimafranca issued a guideline that senior citizens, persons with disabilities, solo parents, pregnant women and minors (seven years old and below) may just walk in without prior appointment with the DFA when renewing or applying for passports.

Cimafranca said they may use the courtesy lane upon arrival, and present their IDs.

Cimafranca also reminded the public that the appointment slots are free.

He added that fixers should not be entertained.

Meanwhile, the Local Government of Taguig will be officially one of the agencies that will disseminate statements and other foreign-related issues.

According to DFA spokesman Robespierre Bolivar, the agency needed a “wider audience” for their daily statement and press releases.

“Those are official DFA press releases. Taguig City PIO (Public Information Office) was kind enough to help us disseminate it to a wider audience since they have media contacts which may be different from the DFA’s,” Bolivar said.

He said that the Taguig City PIO is tasked to release foreign-related issue that may affect the public.

“Could we agree that there is a distinction between issues which are purely foreign policy and those which directly affect the public at large and deserve to be heard by a wider audience, such as more slots for passport application?,” Bolivar said.

Since Cayetano assumed office, the media has been receiving statements and press releases, even about the official visit of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Sarah Lou Arriola to the Middle East and relayed Cayetano’s assurance to Filipino diplomats that the DFA will provide “resources” for them to effectively assist Filipinos in distress.

Cayetano’s wife, Laarni, is currently the mayor of Taguig City.

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