By Pearl Gumapos
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) warned the public on Monday against falling for social media advertisements posted by unscrupulous individuals offering passport appointment slots and fake or tampered documents in exchange for payment.
Several cases of fake documents brought by unwitting applicants who claim to have secured them through social media have turned up at the DFA in recent weeks.
According to a DFA press release, the demand for passport services has increased, because the DFA’s Consular Offices in the NCR Plus area had to cease operations in line with the declaration of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified ECQ (MECQ) there in March and April, resulting in limited passport appointment slots.
Before the pandemic, the DFA was able to offer over 13,000 passport appointment slots per day. Nowadays, only 6,100 slots daily are available because of restrictions in venue capacity and the strict implementation of health and safety protocols.
“We want to assure the public that ten temporary satellite offices will be opened very soon to create additional passport appointment slots,” said Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Civilian Security and Consular Affairs Brigido J. Dulay.
He said the opening of temporary satellite offices will initially create an additional 2,500 slots in Metro Manila and another 2,500 in other regions experiencing high demand.
The DFA will continue to provide courtesy lane access to qualified applicants such as overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) with the urgent need to travel, pregnant, the elderly, minors, solo parents, and persons with disability. These appointments must be scheduled through the DFA online appointment system. – jlo
