Despite President Duterte’s order to shorten the long waiting time for passport processing at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), thousands of Filipinos still find themselves unable to secure the document on time.
This has resulted in missed job opportunities abroad and rescheduled departures for ordinary travelers.
Although the DFA earlier revoked the 1,200 slots allotted to travel agencies, it still takes three months to process a passport, according to a travel consultant.
“The long waiting time in acquiring a new passport for overseas Filipino workers [OFWs] continues to persist at the Aseana main passport office and other regional offices of the DFA,” said travel consultant Manny Geslani.
He added the delays in the processing of passports for OFWs also happen in some regional offices operated by the DFA Consular Offices and the online system.
Geslani said the DFA has a two-month backlog for appointments, while there are unreasonable requirements by some regional offices for additional identification cards.
“These have frustrated Filipinos who want to go abroad and seek better jobs,” he added.
When Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter S. Cayetano assumed office in May, he removed the appointment system and encouraged the walk-in scheme, hoping this will reduce the waiting time.
Eventually, Cayetano’s order was revoked, and the overseas recruitment agencies were allowed to endorse their applicants as walk-in customers without the need for appointment.
However, this is limited to 1,500 slots per day in all the 32 regional offices of the DFA, Geslani said, noting that the government agency accepts some 15,000 passport seekers per day all over the country.
The Aseana complex on Macapagal Boulevard processes about 1,000 passports daily.
In their latest consultation with the Federation of Manpower Exporters Inc. and the Coalition of Licensed Agencies Deploying Domestic Services, Foreign Undersecretary Jose Luis G. Montales offered 1,500 slots for walk-in applicants from the recruitment agencies.
Geslani said the manpower recruiters are inclined to accept the proposal as a temporary solution to their problems.
The industry leaders are also looking forward for the DFA to set up more mobile passport units and biometric desktops that the agency will acquire in 2018 to meet the heavy volume of passport applicants.
The manpower industry earlier complained to DFA officials that many prospective applicants have encountered unreasonable demands from regional offices in Davao, Zamboanga and Legaspi.
“Those DFA offices have demanded additional identification card (IDs) like driver’s licenses, Social Security System (SSS) and voter’s ID despite the applicants’ submission of authenticated National Statistics Office birth or marriage certificates, PhilHealth ID, National Bureau of Investigation, police clearance and digitized Postal ID, which are the minimum requirements to be submitted by the passport applicant,” he added.
He said the additional requirements are over and beyond the minimum requirements needed by an ordinary applicant, since most of them are young women from Mindanao who are not expected to drive.
“Most of them do not possess SSS ID since it is their first time to apply for an overseas job,” he added.