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MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) and the Department of Foreign Affairs have signed a six-month memorandum of agreement (MoA) for faster processing of passports coursed through travel agencies.
At the same time, the DFA asked the PTAA to help eliminate identity theft in the processing of passports by its 500 member-companies through close scrutiny of the applicants? documents, including identification cards.
"Identity theft has happened before in travel agencies. We want them to take some form of responsibility on this. This partnership also has to address such irregularity," said DFA assistant secretary for consular affairs Domingo Lucenario Jr.
Lucenario said the DFA is continuously addressing passport tampering and integrity concerns especially after the release of the new machine readable passports. He said the DFA has centralized its database and expects all passports to be machine readable by April 2010.
Under the MoA, the DFA will provide space for a special section where the PTAA can handle passport applications coming from its member companies. The agreement also allows the PTAA to place a three-man team composed of a liaison officer and two encoders who will all be trained by the DFA on their respective responsibilities, functions, and tasks.
For its part, the DFA will regularly update the association through its three-man team for any changes in the passport system and processing.
The agreement, which will take effect immediately, makes the PTAA the first private group to enter such an arrangement with the DFA, the agency that processes thousands of passport applications daily.
PTAA president Jose Clemente III said association members expect the initial agreement to significantly reduce passport processing time for their members' clients.
"Service is our business. The MOA is expected to ease the bottleneck in passport applications with the DFA in addition to the fact that we will be having our own area to process passport applications that are coursed through our members. We are thankful to the DFA for allowing us to enter into this partnership with them," Clemente said in a statement.
Lucenario agreed the MoA can streamline the passport applications done through travel agencies.
"There is a 10-day passport processing time for travel agencies. Our target is to make it seven days," Lucenario said.
To assure that only passport applications from member companies are processed through the special lane, the PTAA will provide the DFA with specimen signatures from the official representatives of their member-companies.
Clemente said that in the course of the PTAA's evaluation of the situation, they may request the DFA for permission to place additional manpower at the passport processing area of the department.
Citing PTAA records, Clemente said that since 2006, average daily passport applications coursed through travel agencies have been from 1,200 to 1,800 from only 500 the previous years.
Established in 1979, the association is a member of the Asean Tourism Association, Federation of ASEAN Travel Agencies, and the United Federation of Travel Agents Association.
