DFA starts processing machine-readable passports Monday

September 16, 2007
Updated 20:25:29 (Mla time)
Tarra Quismundo
Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines--The Department of Foreign Affairs expects a surge in new passport applications and renewals as it starts accepting from the public applications for the new machine-readable passports (MRPs).

“Starting tomorrow [Monday], all applications, both first-timers and renewals, will be for MRPs,” said Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Domingo Lucenario Jr. on Sunday.

The MRPs were initially made available in July only to public officials, senior citizens, migrant workers and their dependents.

MRPs, tamper-proof because of its embedded biometrics security images, will be available at the DFA head office and at the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), Lucenario said.

By next month, he said, the DFA would bring the MRP technology to its 11 regional consular service offices across the country and eventually to its foreign service posts around the world.

“This is a passport that complies with international standards. This is the way to go. The MRPs are better secured and more globally at par,” Lucenario said.

MRPs, a requirement under the regulations of the International Civil Aviation Organization, have been widely used in countries around the world as the technology enables faster processing at immigration counters, neater record-keeping and immediate retrieval and checking.

The new maroon passports will cost the same as the manually read green passports at P500 for regular processing and P750 for express processing.

Lucenario, however, said the public would have to bear with the slower processing time for the MRPs as the DFA’s systems and personnel were still adjusting to the new process.

“There will be no change in terms of cost but the process will take a little longer. If before it took three days for express and six days for regular processing, now it will take seven days for express and 14 for regular processing,” Lucenario said.

He assured the public the number of processing days would eventually be reduced.

The DFA decided to open MRP applications to the public after it acquired enough booklets from Philippine central bank, which supplies the upgraded passports.

It earlier issued around 10,000 MRPs to senior citizens, migrant workers and government employees who were given first crack at the new passports.

The MRP project is an interim measure. The country will eventually shift to fully electronic passports, which use embedded chips to store the passport bearer’s data.