Here is the reason why passport appointment takes 3 months

<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MALVAR, BATANGAS—Ever wonder why it takes two to three months to schedule a passport application appointment online?</span><br /> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0J9gt2DM_VfSLYUpx5-z6csFLJ8kJHJhbyXnPiJz-r0yRsL5WGBXKgRSedEcKespNl7emZGDHqR5e0P_ZljIBqBb-M_Rbtz2k36BE1BStR813ZA5GMp1fO5KW5y1L57CFK2Apu9-3BMV2/s1600/passportph.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0J9gt2DM_VfSLYUpx5-z6csFLJ8kJHJhbyXnPiJz-r0yRsL5WGBXKgRSedEcKespNl7emZGDHqR5e0P_ZljIBqBb-M_Rbtz2k36BE1BStR813ZA5GMp1fO5KW5y1L57CFK2Apu9-3BMV2/s640/passportph.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Online application of passports takes 3 months which is just common, yet hassle, among Filipinos.</td></tr> </tbody></table> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">APO Production Unit Inc., the government-owned printing facility, has foiled a lucrative scam of fixers who has reserved up to 450 slots for passport applicants which they sell at P5,000 each for those in desperate need of travel documents.</span><br /> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">APO Production sales manager Dominic Tajon said these fixers, who are believed to be backed by syndicates, earn as much as P2.5 million by blocking passport application slots.</span><br /> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The rates for the reserved online passport schedule start at P5,000 and can go higher depending on the applicants’ preferred date of application or renewal of their passports, he said.</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The days of fixers are numbered because the Department of Foreign Affairs has allowed APO Production to handle the end-to-end passport processing in the next two months,” said Tajon in an interview with the diplomatic press corps on Thursday.</span><br /> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He said the public can expect ease in getting online appointment by September, when applicants under the old system would have been accommodated.</span><br /> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tajon said the scam has been uncovered by information technology experts while installing the new security feature in the DFA’s online passport application on June 17.</span><br /> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">DFA spokesperson Charles Jose said regional consular offices of the DFA will also institute a similar appointment system so the applicants will be spared the hassles of long queues.</span><br /> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“In Aseana, we will also see considerable improvement in getting online appointments once measures we’ve instituted a month or so ago start taking effect in August and September,” said Jose in a text message.</span><br /> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">APO has signed a memorandum of agreement with the DFA in Oct. 5, 2015, that allows the firm to handle the end-to-end passport system.</span><br /> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He said the new integrated system aims to meet the demands for continued production of electronic passports to comply with the standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations attached agency.</span><br /> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“A new security system has been installed last June 17 that scrutinizes the identity of applicants,” he said.</span><br /> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tajon toured reporters yesterday at the highly secured APO Processing Plant at the Lima Export Processing Zone in Malvar, Batangas, showing the new facilities and equipment to be used in producing the newly designed Philippine passport.</span><br /> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The DFA is expected to launch the new Philippine passport on Aug. 15.</span><br /> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He said APO had to start from scratch since the previous company that handled passport production did not turn over the facility and equipment.</span><br /> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The DFA started the electronic passport that replaced the green passport in 2009. It contains a highly secured micro chip that contains all personal details of the passport holders.</span><br /> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Under the new contract, the DFA and APO Production commit “to secure the integrity of the Philippine e-passport by adopting technological developments in the production and security of e-passports.”</span><br /> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Source: <a href="http://globalnation.inquirer.net/142180/3-months-for-a-passport-appointment-heres-why" target="_blank">Inquirer</a></span>

Issue Local News Passport Here is the reason why passport appointment takes 3 months

MALVAR, BATANGAS—Ever wonder why it takes two to three months to schedule a passport application appointment online? Online application ...

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