Poe to DFA: End ‘unacceptable’ delay in passport processing

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Waiting for about two months for passport application was just “unacceptable,” so said Senator Grace Poe as she urged the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to provide immediate solutions to passport processing delays, which is affecting thousands of applicants.

Poe said her office has received various complaints from passport applicants, ranging from long waiting time and failure to receive confirmation code thru e-mail as to the date of the electronic passport appointment.

READ: 3 months for a passport appointment? Here’s why

“This has been one of the problems of the DFA for years now which results in missed opportunities for (Filipinos) wanting to visit their families abroad, those seeking for immediate medical treatment and especially aspiring overseas Filipino workers who have to wait for several days just to get this most basic document required of every Filipino in this age of globalization,” she said in a statement on Monday.

“We call on the DFA to immediately look into several complaints of system inefficiencies related to the ePassport system,” the senator added.

Poe noted that around 15,000 Filipinos apply for a passport every day.

Passport applicants, she said, have to call the DFA hotline or visit the DFA’s online application system website and book a preferred date and selected time for personal appearance and submission of pertinent documents at the DFA Manila in Aseana, Macapagal Avenue, participating regional consular offices and satellite offices.

No less than President Rodrigo Duterte himself has said that he wanted to stop long queues for passport applicants at DFA processing centers.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay also reportedly said that the first marching order he received from President Duterte was to improve the services for OFWs, including “cutting red tape” in the issuance of travel documents, passports and other documents needed for the free passage and travel of people. IDL/rga