AROUND 800 applicants, mostly overseas Filipino workers, have flocked to the Department of Foreign Affairs consular headquarters in Aseana Business Park, Parañaque City in the middle of the night Tuesday, desperate to get a slot in the walk-in application for document authentication.
Aside from passport applications, the DFA is also certifying the authenticity of signatures of public documents such as birth certificates, transcript of records, NBI, police or barangay clearance, and other documents that are required overseas for work, business, study and other legal purposes.
Authenticated documents are called “Apostille,” and were previously referred to as “red ribbon.”
The surge of Apostille applicants took the DFA and the Parañaque City local government by surprise, as the public had been advised earlier that the Aseana office can only accommodate 300 walk-in applications for Apostille daily.
“Inaalam po namin ngayon ang puno’t dulo ng pangyayaring ito [We are looking into the roots of this],” the DFA said in its tweet.
DFA Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. put the issue of “sabotage” aside as he ordered the DFA staff to attend to these applicants first.
“Suddenly in the night, 800 applicants for Apostile appeared in ASEANA. DFA mobilized to care & feed them. I ordered the deployment of diplomatic staff to man the desks completely in 14 hour shifts. Suspicion of sabotage is irrelevant; they need a public service,” Locsin tweeted.
Television reports said the queue at DFA Aseana stretched past the gasoline station around S&R store. Some have been in camping for three days, as they were not able to make it to the cut-off.
GMA News reported that there were applicants who also came from the provinces in the Visayas regions. They were filmed sleeping in the pavement, social distancing notwithstanding.
“Why are they in Manila when all our consular offices in all the provinces are already in full force this week?” Locsin tweeted. “Please make sure all consular offices are informing their respective publics of this update,” he ordered the DFA Office of Consular Affairs.
Around 7:43am, Wednesday, the DFA OCA announced the suspension of walk-in Apostille services.
The DFA reminded the public that they can only accommodate 300 applicants in Aseana every day. They will start accepting applicants at 7am and applicants don’t need to queue in the middle of the night.
Aside from Aseana office, the DFA can also accommodate Apostille walk-in application for authentication services daily in the following consular offices:
- NCR Northeast (Ali Mall): 80 applicants
- NCR West (SM Manila): 150 applicants
- NCR East (SM Megamall): 100 applicants
- DFA Consular Office-Pampanga: 80 applicants
- NCR South (Metro Gaisano, Alabang): 150 applicants
- Consular Office-Iloilo: 60 applicants
- DFA Consular Office-La Union: 50 applicants
- DFA Consular Office-Davao: 90 applicants
- DFA Consular Office-Cebu: 100 applicants
- DFA Consular Office-Cagayan de Oro: 37 applicants
Applicants are advised to check the requirements first before they proceed to the DFA consular offices so that their time, money and effort won’t be wasted. The requirements can be accessed here: consular.dfa.gov.ph/services/authentication/authentication-requirements/requirements-of-documents-for-authentication.
Applicants who are not in a rush to get their Apostille documents, meanwhile, can book an appointment through the DFA portal co.dfaapostille.ph/dfa/.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes