FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. on Tuesday signed Department Order 03-2019 on the documentary requirements for the renewal of regular passports, days after protesting the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) rule that burdened migrant workers with having to present their birth certificates anew.
The order made it clear that regular renewals of passports are not covered by the requirement to present the birth certificate.
However, in the following cases birth certificates issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority shall be required:
- First time passport applications;
- Renewal application for lost and mutilated passport;
- Renewal applications requiring changes in the passport entries;
- Renewal application of old brown and green passports bearing no complete middle name, and;
- Applicants included in the Department’s Watchlist.
The order will take effect 15 days from the filing with the Office of the National Administrative Register (Onar) of the UP Law Center.
The signing of the order caps a nearly weeklong controversy stirred by a series of tweets by the irrepressible DFA chief, who demanded to know why overseas Filipino workers have to present their birth certificates when renewing their passports, when their personal data was already taken by the government earlier when they first applied for a passport.
He subsequently said a contractor had run away with the data, so the government must again build up its digital file of passport holders.
A Senate resolution seeks an inquiry into the matter, and Locsin said on Tuesday crucial points in the controversy can be addressed by such an inquiry.