The Senate Committee on Labor on Wednesday, Nov. 3 sought the opening of more off-site passport processing centers in malls outside of Metro Manila.
Senator Joel Villanueva, committee chairman, made the call as Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and others are on the job-hunt and the number of COVID-19 infections continues to go down.
Villanueva said the move of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to open six Temporary Off-Site Passport Services (DFA-TOPS) in NCR last month is “a great solution that should be replicated and scaled up” nationwide.
Passport processing, Villanueva explained, is “an important employment assistance not only to OFWs but to first-time job seekers.”
“Well, in a sense, you can view it as job generation activity,” he added.
As travel restrictions get rolled back globally, this would open up economies that will take back furloughed workers, many of whom were Filipinos, Villanueva said.
Villanueva praised Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin for expanding the passport intake capacity of the DFA by ordering the opening of more DFA-TOPS sites.
He said the Locsin move would reduce the backlog in passport applications.
The latest report by the DFA said some 420,205 OFWs affected by the COVID economic slowdown were repatriated with government help since the pandemic shut down businesses.
“For many of them, the forced vacation is over. And some of them may have expired passports. The rush to renew this indispensable travel document is what is causing the logjam in passport applications,” he said.
In anticipation of the global economic reopening next year, we should make sure that OFWs have the necessary documents with them, Villanueva said.
He said even non-OFWs would benefit from more passport processing centers.
This includes grandparents who want to visit their children and grandchildren who are staying abroad, he pointed out.
The DFA forecast 4.2 million pieces of passports processed in 2020 but ended the year with 1.73 million passports issued.
It also targeted 4,556,325 pieces of passport issued this year but as of July 2021, only 1,281,836 had been released.
“Dahil sa COVID surges, marami pong kababayan natin ang hindi nakapag-apply ng passport (Because of COVID-19 surges, many were not able to apply for passports). Dagdag pa ang domestic travel restrictions plus health protocols (Other reasons include domestic travel restrictions and health protocols). Kaya pag bumaba po ang mga cases ng COVID, asahang tataas ng applications for passports (The number of applications are expected to increase as the number of COVID-19 decreases),” he said.
Villanueva is one of the authors of Republic Act 10928, which extends to 10 years the validity of Philippine passports.
Provisions guaranteeing the ease of securing passports and other work documents are also highlighted in the Villanueva bill creating the Department of Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos.