DFA E-Passport Served Ifugao, Ilocos Norte, Catanduanes

The e-passport has allowed Filipinos in remote areas to apply for a passport right in their own area

The Department of foreign Affair's e-passport program is in line with the agency's commitment to make its services accessible to the public nationwide.

After the province of Batanes, the Department of Foreign Affairs extended its services to the people of Ifugao, Ilocos Norte, and Catanduanes. In a statement, the DFA bared that this is part of their efforts to bring efficient passport services to Filipinos. Recently, the agency has served the people of Lagawe and the surrounding towns of Kiangan, Lamut, Banaue, and Hingyon and the cities of Laoag and Virac. The DFA’s Office of Consular Affairs revealed that they processed 1,828 e-passports in these areas.

According to DFA spokesperson Raul Hernandez, this is in line with their commitment to make their services more accessible to the public. Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario bared that they were considering bringing the program to the remote areas of the country such as Tawi Tawi. There is no outreach program in the area but it is being served by the regional office in Zamboanga City and Cotabato City which operates on Saturdays. Last January 30, the maiden mobile passport processing program was launched in Basco, Batanes where more than 300 passports were processed. Teams were also sent to Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro and Calamba City, Laguna where 500 and 197 passports were processed, respectively.

By March, the OCA will bring its e-passport program to San Jose del Monte, Sta. Maria, Bustos, Bocaue, and Malolos in Bulacan; Rodriguez, Taytay, and Tanay in Rizal; and Guimba in Nueva Ecija. The mobile passport program is spearheaded by the DFA on the request of the different LGUs. The Department of Foreign Affairs currently has 21 passport processing centers all across the country. In the last two years, an estimated five million passports were processed by the agency generating more than P6 billion worth of revenues for the government.

It expects to complete around 2.8 million passports, 200,000 greater than last year. In January, the DFA announced the freezing of passport processing fees this year. Regular passports can be processed for P950 and can be claimed after 14 working days while the expedited processing is worth P1,200 and issued after seven days.