The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) opened on Monday (July 5) five temporary off-site passport service centers to respond to the growing passport service demands in the country amid the pandemic.
The offsite service located in SM Mall of Asia, SM City North Edsa, SM Aura, Robinsons Place Las Pinas, and Robinsons Place Magnolia will open additional 177,000 slots for passport application and renewal until December.
The said centers are operational from Mondays to Saturdays. The DFA said it is also planning to open more offsite service outside the National Capital Region (NCR) to prevent the public from falling prey to online passport scams.
“This is a result of the need for more appointment slots and we admit that the demand is higher than what could be given out,” Brigido Dulay, Undersecretary for Civilian Security and Consular Affairs, said in an online briefing.
The agency said there is no additional charge for expired passport renewal, and appealed to individuals without urgent passport needs to give way to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
The DFA processes around 13,000 slots nationwide prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the limited workforce and venue capacity to prevent virus transmission reduced the numbers to 6,000.
The enhanced community quarantine in the NCR Plus Bubble last March and April also resulted in backlogs due to the closure of some consular offices.
“Those that were covered by appointments in May and June had to be rescheduled, and the available slots that were opened were in September and October,” Dulay said. – Report from Naomi Tiburcio/AG-rir
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