DFA eyes 100,000 new passports in next 4 months

By DING CERVANTES

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano has vowed to create at least 100,000 passport appointment slots from February to May this year as he virtually blamed the Aquino administration for current delays in passport applications and renewals.

This would mean no less than 100,000 people either applying for new passports or needing renewal via online appointments are assured of attention, amid plans of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to outsource the process.

At the same time, Cayetano warned syndicates “real or imagined” that reportedly charge, at times through Facebook, some P5,000 to P20,000 for alleged speedy passport processing.

In his speech during the recent groundbreaking here for the National Government Administrative Government Center at the proposed New Clark City, Cayetano also advised people abroad and in the country who urgently need to travel but whose passports could not be immediately processed to see the supervisor or manager of DFA consular offices.

“Those who have important travels, such as in case of death in the family or an important business conference, can walk in and see the supervisor or manager of the consular offices. We have instructed them to accomodate you,” he said.

He stressed that the problem of delayed passport processing “was not created overnight,” noting that it was only last year that Congress approved an additional P2billion budget as well as the opening of nine consular offices for the DFA.

Cayetano said his department would open 100,000 appointment slots for people applying for or renewing their passports from February to May and that more personnel would be employed.

He said the passport problem has also been caused by an “old supplier” whose biometric records were corrupted.

“This is my first time to hear that not only politicians and businessmen can be corrupted, but also data,” he said.