Passports valid for 10 years starting 2018

The validity of Philippine passports will be extended to 10 years from the current five effective January 2018 at no additional cost to passport holders and applicants, Foreign Secretary Alan Cayetano has announced.

Cayetano on Wednesday signed the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the new Philippine Passport Act, which President Rodrigo Duterte signed last Aug. 2. The law cannot be implemented without the IRR.

“Our signing [of the IRR] will make [the 10-year validity] effective Jan. 1, 2018,” Cayetano wrote on his Facebook account.

He said they could not immediately extend the validity of passports since the Department of Foreign Affairs would need two months to notify other countries that Philippine passports were valid for five more years from the expiry date. —Dona Z. Pazzibugan