THE Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is establishing additional temporary offsite passport services sites to address three to four million backlog caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Undersecretary Brigido Dulay told lawmakers yesterday.
Dulay told the House committee on appropriations’ budget hearing on the DFA’s P21 billion proposed budget for 2022 that some offices had to temporarily cease operations, further delaying the processing of both new and renewed passports.
He said the current backlog “really stems from the pandemic which has limited our ability to provide the usual, regular services and passport renewals to a lot of Filipinos.”
“Our estimate is we’ll need an additional 10 to 20 temporary offsite passport services just to try and minimize the backlog,” Dulay said.
He said the DFA’s off-site centers could hardly keep up with the high demand for passport applications.
Dulay earlier said they had to cut operations by half to comply with minimum public health standards because of the need to strictly follow social distancing to avoid the spread of the deadly virus.
He also appealed to the public to consider deferring their passport applications to allow OFWs and those with medical concerns to avail of the services first.
