RP passport shortage hits US cities too

The Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday the consulates in San Francisco and Los Angeles in California and Hong Kong are experiencing a shortage in blank passport booklets, a predicament suffered also by the Philippine Embassy in Saudi Arabia and the home office.

Foreign Affairs department spokesman Victoriano Lecaros said the home office has asked embassies and consulates abroad the number of blank passports they have received to determine the real situation.

Lecaros said Vice President and Foreign Affairs Secretary Teofisto Guingona summoned the heads of the Consular Office’s passport division and those involved in the issuance of passports to thresh out the problem.

"Any problem of this nature is serious," Lecaros told reporters, adding that a shortage of passports is usually experienced from January to May when the demand for passports peaks.

But passport division officials said the embassy in Riyadh received its usual allocation of 600 blank passports only last week.

"The shortage could be because of greater demand than supply and people may not be able to come home due to problems other than the supply of passports, like exit visas," Lecaros said.

Guingona has ordered the hiring of at least 40 additional personnel to be assigned to the passport division to ease difficulties in getting passports.

The Vice President has also ordered an appointment system to accommodate applicants whose applications cannot be entertained in a day because of the daily quota of 2,500 passports.

"If only 2,500 can be accommodated in a day, then the 2,501st applicant should have the priority the following day," Lecaros said.

"The appointment system is basically for those whose papers are complete but can’t be accommodated and they’ll be listed to assure accommodation," he added.

"If we have our way, this (shortage) could be stopped this week," Lecaros assured.

According to Lecaros, the DFA needs about 9,000 blank passports on a daily basis for the home office, embassies and consulates all over the world.

Meanwhile, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which prints the passports, assured the DFA that passports ordered from the BSP were delivered ahead of schedule.

BSP Governor Rafael Buenaventura said in a statement that he spoke with Guingona to clarify the claim of Iloilo Rep. Augusto Syjuco that overseas Filipinos could not return home because of the shortage of passports.

Buenaventura said Syjuco may have been misinformed and, in fact, the BSP has delivered 449,999 passport booklets as of March 15, or 56 percent of the DFA’s requirement for the entire year.

The balance, Buenaventura said, will be delivered in June, or three months ahead of the September schedule.

Buenaventura said the DFA may have miscalculated its passport requirements for the year as it ordered 800,000 passports in August last year.