Online payment for passport applications will be available ‘very soon’ — DFA chief

MANILA, Philippines — Online payment for passport application will be available very soon, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said Thursday.

“We are working on that, too. [A]nd very soon it will be available,” Locsin said on Twitter in response to a suggestion that the passport application process would be more efficient if it online payment is allowed.

“Plus we don’t like our people handling cash. We have dismissed a few who have pocketed it,” he added.

We're working on that too and very soon it will be available. Plus we don't like our people handling cash. We have dismissed a few who have pocketed it.

— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) July 4, 2019

Earlier, the foreign affairs chief scrapped the birth certificate requirement for the renewal of passports.

Under Section 1 of Department Order (DO) 03-2019, “the presentation of birth certificate in the application for the renewal of passport shall not be required.”

READ: Locsin scraps birth certificate requirement for renewal of passport https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1073485/locsin-scraps-birth-certificate-requirement-for-renewal-of-passport#ixzz5shDoziNh

However, the directive will only cover regular passport renewal and not the following cases:

• first time passport applications
• renewal applications for lost and mutilated passports
• renewal requiring changes in the passport entries
• renewal of old brown and green passports bearing no complete middle name
• applicants included in DFA’s watchlist

The department order came after Locsin disclosed that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is “rebuilding” its files “from scratch” because a previous contractor “took all” the applicants’ data when its contract with the department was terminated.

“Because previous contractor got pissed when terminated, it made off with data. We did nothing about it or couldn’t because we were in the wrong,” he posted in his personal Twitter account last January 9. (Editor: Eden Estopace)

READ: Passport maker ‘took all data’ when contract terminated, reveals DFA chief