Birth certificate no longer needed to renew passport —Locsin

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddy Locsin Jr. has issued Department Order No. 03-2019 removing the requirement of presenting birth certificate when renewing passport.

"The Department recognizes the need to enhance the convenience of and unburden the public and passport applicants from unnecessary requirements for the renewal of their passports," the order said.

"Therefore, the presentation of birth certificate in the application for the renewal of passport shall not be required, it added.

Voila! The emancipation proclamation from bureaucratic crap. pic.twitter.com/kyven04l9h

— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) January 15, 2019

The order covers only regular renewals of passports and shall not cover the following cases where birth certificates are still required:

• first-time passport applications;
• renewal applications for lost and mutilated passports;
• renewal applications requiring changes in the passport entries;
• renewal applications of old brown and green passports bearing no complete middle name; and,
• applicants included in the department's watchlist

Netizens raised complaints over the weekend when Locsin said the agency had lost its data to a previous contractor and would therefore require birth certificate to renew passport.

On Tuesday, Locsin took back his word and said that the former passport contractor did not run away with the data, but only made them inaccessible. —LDF, GMA News