Several consular offices that are temporarily closed due to coronavirus disease cases among personnel will resume operations on Jan. 21, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.
In an advisory on Monday, Jan. 17, the DFA said most of the temporary off-site passport services (TOPS) and consular offices (CO) that were ordered for temporary closure will be resuming its operations on Jan. 21 while some offices and sites will reopen on Jan. 24.
Offices and sites that will resume operations on Jan. 21 are the DFA Office of Consular Affairs in Aseana Business Park in Paranaque City; COs in National Capital Region (NCR) Central, East, North, Northeast, South, and West; CO Antipolo; CO Angeles; CO Baguio; CO Dasmarinas; CO Iloilo; CO Lucena; CO Malolos; CO San Pablo; and TOPS in Newport Mall, Robinsons Las Pinas, Robinsons Novaliches, Robinsons Place Magnolia, Robinsons San Pedro Laguna, SM Aura, SM Manila, SM Mall of Asia, and SM North Edsa.
Consuar offices in Dumaguete, Legazpi, Puerto Princesa, and Tacloban, on the other hand, will reopen on Jan. 24.
The DFA also said that affected passport applicants originally scheduled at DFA Aseana are advised to refer to their new schedule of appointments.
"Please expect an email with further details about your appointment which will be sent to the email address you used when you booked your application," the department said.
The new passport schedules can be found on the DFA website.
On Jan. 15, Saturday, the Foreign Affairs department announced that it would limit onsite working capacity to 30 percent in offices within areas placed under Alert Level 3 amid the rising COVID-19 infections among its personnel.
READ MORE: DFA reduces onsite workforce to 30% in areas under Alert Level 3