DFA to set up call center to aid passport applicants

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Foreign Affairs will soon establish a call center to allow passport applicants to choose the date and time they would like to be accommodated in any consular office nationwide.

“Once operational, the proposed call center can be expected to significantly reduce, if not, eliminate the long lines that have been associated with the passport application process especially here in Cebu,” said DFA undersecretary for administration Rafael Seguis.

Seguis said that with this new measure, passport applicants, especially those in the provinces, no longer need to go to DFA offices as early as midnight just to make sure that their applications would be accepted and processed.

Seguis, who was in Cebu yesterday, said that this is one of their new guidelines outlining the steps that they are taking in the next few months to improve the delivery of passport and other consular services and to extend these services to as many people as possible.

DFA-Cebu officer-in-charge Elias Balawag said that these measures are intended to make it easier and more convenient for the Filipinos to apply for passport.

Seguis said that the proposed call center will complement the ongoing transfer of DFA consular office to shopping malls nationwide under the Public-Private Partnership arrangement that will save the government an estimated P1.04 billion in operating and other costs in the next ten years.

DFA-Cebu is the first to have a mall-based consular office and DFA expects to open before the end of the year another 12 consular offices in Metro Manila and other key cities and the conclusion of negotiations for similar arrangements for the hosting of consular office in other parts of the country.

Balawag said that since they transferred their consular office at the Pacific Mall in Mandaue City last December, there has been a notable increase of applicants.

DFA-Cebu processes more or less 500 passports/applicants per day.

DFA special assistant Elmer Cato said that every day the DFA processes about 10,000 passport applications nationwide.

“We want to provide convenient and real public service to our people. These new guidelines aim for that. Gone are the days that one needs to have a fixer to process his or her passport application,” Seguis added.

The undersecretary said that the guidelines also include the decentralization of authentication services and to make these services available in Metro Manila, San Fernando, Pampanga, Davao and Cebu.

Seguis further said that the guidelines also cover the conduct of special and mobile passport services and the accreditation of travel agencies that would allow them to continue assisting applicants until December 31, 2012.

“The good thing about this is that despite these improvements in service, the DFA will not increase passport fees,” he said.

Seguis also explained that the directive they issued last May, allowing accredited travel agencies to transact with DFA until the end of the year, is not intended to drive travel agencies out of the business.

He said that the guidelines do not prevent travel agencies from assisting those who are willing and have the means to avail themselves of the services they offer.

 “The guidelines are intended to allow ordinary passport applicants to enjoy the same special treatment travel agency clients enjoy but at no extra cost to them. Kung ang wang-wang ay hindi allowed sa daan, sa DFA din walang wang-wang. Everybody is treated special,” Seguis said.

 While travel agency-assisted applicants shell out anywhere from P1,800 to P7,000 for these privileges, the DFA collects from P950 (ordinary processing) and P1,200 (expedited processing), which is the same amount paid by ordinary passport applicants.

Unfortunately, unlike travel agency clients who can breeze through the application process, ordinary applicants have to come to DFA offices as early as midnight and wait in line for hours before they could be served.

We strongly felt, Seguis said, that there was a need to correct this situation as it is inconsistent with the steps that they have been taking to improve the delivery of their consular services such as the transfer of their offices to better facilities inside shopping malls. —(FREEMAN)