Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) Director-General Secretary Jeremiah Belgica commended the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) for immediately setting up additional processing sites for passports a week after the Authority conducted an inspection at the Office of Consular Affairs in Parañaque City.
In a press conference on Monday (July 5), the DFA said they opened temporary off-site passport service sites in five malls in Metro Manila to help address the backlog and increasing demand for passport processing.
The sites will add 177,000 more passport application slots until September.
“We laud the DFA for its quick response to the issues hounding their passport processing services,” Belgica said. “Hindi mo rin sila masisi sa mga backlog na nangyari dahil talaga namang mahirap magtrabaho sa kalagitnaan ng pandemya.”
“Harinawa, this coming July 7, sabi magbubukas sila ng additional areas kung saan pwede mag-process, magdadagdag ng 5,000 na tao,” he added. “Hopefully, ma-resolba na rin ‘yung nangyaring backlogs dahil sa pandemya.”
Belgica, who claimed his renewed passport at DFA-OCA on Monday, also lauded the agency for putting up a Citizen’s Charter and deploying more people to assist clients.
The changes were recommendations that he made after conducting an inspection at DFA-OCA on June 28.
The ARTA secretary noted that the government workers at DFA-OCA observed the ‘no noon break time policy’ because he was accommodated even when he arrived at lunch time.
During his inspection, Belgica found that a lot of people falling in line at the office could not book appointments using the DFA-OCA website. The DFA attributed the issue to their lack of manpower brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier, the DFA-OCA set up a “Courtesy Lane” for senior citizens, persons with disabilities (PWDs), pregnant women, minors aged seven years old and below, solo parents, overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), and exceptional and emergency cases to decrease the number of people falling in line.
Those who wish to access the Courtesy Lane must first go through the Passport Appointment System at passport.gov.ph. Other requirements can be found at https://consular.dfa.gov.ph/services/passport/passport-cl.
The ARTA chief pledged to help the DFA-OCA streamline their appointments system. The ARTA and DFA have been conducting meetings to discuss the issues and ways forward. (ARTA) – jlo
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