PHL's first shopping mall-based passport office now open in Cebu

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) inaugurated in Mandaue City, Cebu the first of several passport offices located in shopping malls throughout the Philippines. DFA Secretary Albert del Rosario led officials in inaugurating the P15-million consular office at the fourth level of the Gaisano-owned Metro Pacific Mall on Tuesday. "What we have here in DFA-Cebu is the first of its kind outside Metro Manila-a first-class consular facility that offers world-class service to the people of the Central Visayas," Del Rosario said. The new 800-square-meter facility in Cebu is patterned after the new Office of Consular Affairs Building along Macapagal Avenue in Parañaque City. "Passport applicants are guaranteed a faster and more efficient service in a modern, more convenient setting at no additional cost to them," he added. The new DFA Cebu office has amenities such as adequate parking, restrooms, food outlets, a supermarket, and retail stores. Four months earlier, Del Rosario and Pacific Mall President Edward Gaisano negotiated the transfer and hosting of the consular office that was previously located in Cebu City. "The arrangements with Pacific Mall will allow the DFA to save as much as P40 million in operational and other costs over 10 years," the DFA said. Other PPP arrangements The DFA also entered into Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements that are expected to save the government P1.04 billion in operational and other costs over a 10-year period. "I would like to assure the applying public that despite the improved facilities and services resulting from these arrangements, the cost of the Philippine passport will remain the same and the price of our passport will remain among the cheapest in the world," Del Rosario said. Del Rosario said the DFA wants all its existing consular offices in the provinces to be located in shopping malls in major cities nationwide by 2014. Aside from the Metro Pacific Mall, some of the companies that entered into PPP arrangements with the DFA are:

• Robinsons Land Corp., Ayala Land Inc. and SM Prime Holdings (for the hosting of another 15 consular offices in Metro Manila and other parts of the country);

• Robinsons Land Corporation (for the hosting of existing consular offices in San Fernando, Pampanga; Bacolod; Iloilo; Tacloban; General Santos; and Quezon City and the opening of extension offices in Laoag, Lipa, and Dumaguete);

• Ayala Land Incorporated (for the hosting of its satellite office at Clark Field at the MarQuee Mall in Angeles City), and 

• SM Prime Holdings (for the hosting of its consular offices in Baguio, Batangas and Davao as well as extension offices at the SM Megamall and SM City in Manila.)