DFA mulls taking mobile passport program south

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario

After Batanes in the north, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is mulling the possibility of conducting its next “consular outreach” or mobile electronic passport processing program in Tawi-Tawi, the southernmost province, and other remote parts of the country’s 7,107 island chain.

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said over the weekend that they “do not yet have a consular outreach program in Tawi-Tawi.”

“But our regional consular offices in Zamboanga City and Cotabato City have been asked to operate on Saturdays to serve the region,” including Tawi-Tawi and the neighboring island provinces of Sulu and Basilan, Del Rosario told the Inquirer as he stressed the need to bring DFA services closer to the people.

DFA spokesperson Raul Hernandez said that while there was “no schedule yet for mobile passport services in Tawi-Tawi, we should be able to offer such services in various parts of the country to enable the DFA to reach out to our people wherever they are.”

Foreign Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Jaime Victor Ledda explained that “mobile passport services are organized (by the foreign office) upon the request of local government units.”

“The DFA’s Office of Consular Affairs or the nearest regional office coordinates the schedule, logistics and other arrangements with them,” Ledda said.

According to the OCA head, the agency currently operates 21 processing centers nationwide.

“We have two centers in the National Capital Region—one at the DFA main office and the other at the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration office (in Mandaluyong City). We also process passports in our regional offices in San Fernando, La Union; San Fernando and Clark, Pampanga; and the cities of Baguio, Tuguegarao, Lucena, Batangas, Legaspi, Puerto Princesa, Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Tacloban, Cagayan de Oro, Butuan, Davao, General Santos, Cotabato and Zamboanga,” said Ledda. Jerry E. Esplanada