DFA addressing passport backlog

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Saturday said it is taking measures to address the backlog in passport services.

During the Laging Handa briefing, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Brigido Dulay said the agency is opening “pop up” or modular offices or Temporary Offsite Passport Services (TOPS) facilities to augment the shortage of personnel in its passport processing sites due to the pandemic.

“Nag-uupa kami ng mga bagong outlets ng DFA para makapagserbisyo sa mas maraming nangangailangan ng passport,” Dulay said.

(We are renting additional outlets for DFA to be able to serve as many people who need passports.)

The DFA executive, in August, said that the backlog for passport renewals reached three to four million due to the pandemic. 

“Ang ugat na bakit nagkaroon ng backlog [ay] isa lang naman ang sanhi nito, ito ay pandemiya… Hindi makapagpapasok ng mas maraming tao sa ating mga gusali sapagkat kailangan sumunod sa IATF protocols sa physical distancing at venue capacity,” Dulay said.

(The root cause of the backlog is no other than the pandemic… We cannot deploy more personnel at our offices because we need to follow IATF protocols on physical distancing and venue capacity.)

He said that pre-COVID-19, the DFA has served over four million passport requests.

But due to the pandemic, the number of passport requests served has declined to 1.7 million since 2020 up to October this year.

In a separate statement, the DFA said it will open new TOPS sites in San Pedro, Laguna, Cebu City, Davao City, and Lipa City in October, with two additional sites in the National Capital Region also in the pipeline.

The DFA said it targets open 17 TOPS sites before the end of the year and will continue the program in 2022 if it receives funding from Congress, which is currently deliberating on the government’s 2022 budget.

The agency has also relocated its passport releasing services to Double Dragon Plaza in Pasay City to make the process more convenient to the applicants. —KG, GMA News