Naitas-Cebu: Give us back our original visa share

DESPITE the extension of the implementation of the cutting of allocation of travel agencies to process the passport applications of their clients from December 31, 2012 to June 30 this year, members of a group of travel agencies in Cebu are still pushing for the restoration of the original allocation of 10 percent to 12 percent of the total passports a day.

The extension which was announced last week followed after the Office of the President asked the Department of Foreign Affairs to explain the issues raised by a report submitted to President Benigno Aquino III, said Consul Robert Lim Joseph,  National Association of Independent Travel Agencies (Naitas) in the Philippines chairman emeritus, yesterday.

“What’s funny is that they relaxed after I brought this up to Malacanang and Congressman (Rodante) Marcoleta also to Philconsa (Philippine Constitution Association). They relaxed the limitations to the travel agencies,” said Joseph.

The extension will allow each travel agency to process five passports every Saturday and retained the five percent or 25 passports on weekdays limit here in Cebu.

That is still not enough, Joseph said.

25 passports

Joseph said the five percent on weekdays or only 25 passports is still not enough to allow all 68 accredited travel agencies to process their clients’ passports at an acceptable rate which is not so much beyond the standard 21 days processing.

“The five passport every Saturday additional is still no help at all because it only delays the processing by another week,” said Joseph.

The extension was a sign that the issue could still be resolved and that there’s still hope to that the travfel agencies’ passport allocations at the DFA would be restored, said former regional tourism director Patria Aurora Roa.

“We are happy about this development but we are seeking for the restoration. With this new development it only shows that we can still revert the memorandum to something that is workable for the agencies and will not kill their businesses,” said Roa.

better way

Regional Tourism Director Rowena Montecillo agreed.

Montecillo said there would always be a better way to address issues to promote a better collaboration between the government and private sectors.

According to Joseph, the Philconsa, which is an organization of top level executives in the legal and judiciary divisions as well as businessmen, thinks the memorandum of DFA to limit the number of passports that will be processed through the travel agencies contradicts the 1996 Passport Act which identifies the travel agencies and recruitment agencies as extended authorized agencies for passport processing.

“That is why they suddenly gave the extension and the additional allocation every Saturday. The recruitment agencies allocation were not affected. We think  they can still give us more like restoring the ten to twelve percent daily allocation or 50 to 60 passports a day,” said Joseph.

feedback

According to Joseph, they are also documenting feedbacks from reliable sources on issues in the DFA processing in Pacific Mall in Mandaue City.

“We had feedback from Honey Loop Jarque who said she went through the processing just to see how it  really is. As early as 6 a.m she was already the 335th customer lining up.”

Jarque was told to come back at 1 p.m because the line was still very long.

She was called at 3:30 pm and it took her another hour through the process which includes an additional fee of P300 as notarial fee.

Joseph said that the problem in the passport issuance started with Undersecretary Rafael Sequis who said that they were just doing some adjustments in the system to ensure everyone would be served well and fairly.

“Well one of the candidates of Miss Cebu said during an interview in last week’s 888 News Forum that she did not need to line up because she knew someone in DFA who helped her. We will look into this because it’s not fair for the agencies,” said Joseph.

DFA CHIEF

DFA regional director Elias Balawag was invited in yesterday’s 888 News Forum but he wasn’t able to attend.

Balawag, however, told Cebu Daily News that they were still following the directive from the central office in Manila on the extension and allocation.

“We cannot implement anything that is not in the directive,” said Balawag.

On the issue of special treatments, Balawag said that the Miss Cebu candidate may have been part of a group who were given “courtesy” by the agency which they usually give to individuals who represents Cebu in any way.