PTAA lauds extension of accreditation to process passports for clients

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) welcomes the move of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to extend the accreditation of travel agencies to process passports for their clients.

PTAA president John Paul Cabalza said they have been pushing very hard and had multiple meetings with officials of the DFA to ensure that travel agencies continue their capacity to provide documentation services.

“This has been one of the top priorities for us since late last year.  We have been requesting that the DFA puts its efforts on the implementation of the rules of accreditation.  The Passport Act recognizes the fact that travel agencies should be accredited should they comply with all the requirements,” Cabalza said.

The PTAA has close to 400 member travel agencies that operate across the country, with most of them counting passport processing as only 15 percent of their revenue mix.

In the middle of last week, the DFA issued a memorandum granting travel agencies the right to process passports from July this year to June 2014.   Originally, the DFA gave travel agencies only up to December 31 last year which it later extended to June 30 this year.

Cabalza said they appreciate the fact the DFA is following the rule of law as specified under Republic Act 8239 which states that the government agency should accept renewal of application from travel agencies should they meet all the requirements.

“We will closely work with the DFA to weed out travel agencies that would take advantage of the system,” Cabalza said.

Some of the important aspects of the new memorandum issued by the DFA are that travel agencies must post a surety bond of P200,000 and submit corporate information sheet, list of employees, certificate of accreditation with the Department of Tourism, Securities and Exchange Commission registration, business license permit, and a photo of their office.

The DFA also explicitly stated in the memorandum that no travel agency having an office within a one kilometer radius of any of its offices in the country including regional consular and satellite offices would be granted accreditation.

It also stated that it would not allow travel agencies to post announcements on any medium or have marketing campaigns that imply that passport processing would be faster through them.

The DFA, the PTAA official said, gave travel agencies until August 20 to file their accreditation.