The Department of Foreign Affairs is reminding the public to apply for machine-readable passports as soon as possible should they have to travel outside the country to avoid problems.
DFA-7 director Angel Espiritu said that applicants who plan to leave the country should apply earlier because processing of passports will take a long time now because it is not being printed in the region but in their central office in Manila.
The charges remain the same although a longer processing time is expected because they are still adjusting with the new system and that they still have to send these to Manila.
“They should apply earlier so that in case problems will occur, they will not have a hard time to show themselves again in the office and we could address it as soon as possible,” he said.
The processing of machine-readable passports is part of the government’s bid to make the Philippines at par with international civil aviation standards.
Under the new system, passport applicants have to personally appear, sign and affix their thumb prints on their application form before a consular officer.
Espiritu said machine-readable passports comply with principles and techniques set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, an agency of the United Nations.
“By 2010, all countries must have machine-readable passports. We are starting early so we can improve delivery of passport services,” he said.
Only Singapore and Malaysia have adopted the new system among member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
“With the move from our end, we are the third to implement,” Espiritu said. The new system ensures the authenticity of Philippine passports.
“The new passport has security and safety measures, which the naked eye cannot see. There’s a chip inside so once tampered, it will be easily detected. It’s recognized when you travel to any part of the world,” he said.
Espiritu assured the public that passport fee remains the same, which is P500 for regular processing of 25 days and P750 for the expedited processing of 15 days. Under the present system, regular processing takes six days while expedited processing takes two to three days.
In Cebu, the DFA can process 200 “green” or manually scripted-passports 100 for individuals and 100 for travel agencies. — Jasmin R. Uy/BRP