SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—To fully realize the status of the Subic Bay Freeport as a port of entry, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) is seeking the regularization of passport processing here, as well as the eventual establishment of a Philippine consular office to serve residents of the Subic Bay area and nearby communities.
SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said she has requested the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to conduct passport processing here at least twice a year and later on, to establish full consular services at the Subic Bay Freeport.
“The plan is to start with a passport-issuance office, which will evolve into a consular-affairs office,” Eisma said in a news briefing on Monday.
“This will be among our corporate social responsibility projects to help residents of neighboring towns, as well as assist the DFA in their mission to promote and protect Philippine interests in the global community,” she added.
Eisma made this announcement after the successful conduct of a mobile-passport processing jointly conducted by the DFA and the SBMA at the Ayala Harbor Point Mall here on January 13.
She said 700 passport applications were processed by visiting DFA personnel led by Office of the Consular Affairs Regional Center Chief Bayani Sibug with assistance from the SBMA technical working group (TWG) headed by SBMA Office Services Department chief Gerardo Hermoso Jr.
“We received an overwhelming number of requests from residents for another passport-processing project, as a lot of residents were disappointed to find out that no walk-in applicants were entertained,” Eisma said. “So we would try to make this a regular project for the benefit of local residents.”
Hermoso said the applications processed on January 13 were actually filed for prequalification last October.
The passport-processing project was reportedly intended for SBMA employees only, as part of the agency’s 25th founding anniversary program last year, but was later on extended to include immediate family members of SBMA employees to fill the 750 slots given by the DFA.
The applications and requirements accepted by the SBMA TWG were sent to the DFA office in Manila for verification to hasten processing time during the data-capturing phase of the processing here, Hermoso said.
Eisma said that, with the growing clamor from residents, the SBMA is now coordinating with the DFA for the next passport application-processing project.
“Hopefully, we will have another one by the fourth quarter, and that will be a regular event,” she said.
In August last year, President Duterte signed Republic Act 10928, which extended the validity of Philippine passports, by amending the Philippine Passport Act of 1996.
Eisma said the SBMA will announce the schedule of the next mobile-passport processing project via radio, as well as social-media announcements.
Image credits: Henry Empeño