By Roy C. Mabasa A former high-ranking official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has recommended the adoption of the United States system on passport renewal using the facilities of the postal offices nationwide to help solve the current congestion problem. Ambassador Ariel Abadilla, former DFA undersecretary for administration and consular concerns,said the rationale of his recommendation is to decongest the online passport scheduling system by devoting it solely for first-time applicants. Abadilla disclosed that they were already at the initial stage of discussing the plan with the Philippine Postal Corporation (PhilPost) if not for the abrupt tenure of then Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. whose appointment was rejected by the Commission on Appointments in March last year. Under his proposed plan, Abadilla said all those renewing their passports may just go directly to the post offices nationwide, submit an application, undergo the biometrics, and pay the necessary passport fee and delivery charges. The post office will then handle the delivery of the passports instead of giving out the job to private door-to-door services. “This is not a new idea or system. Just adopting some features of the USA system. Why reinvent the wheel?” the former DFA undersecretary said in a text message. After the first stage of the renewal process, Abadilla said the collected data from the post office, as well as the hard copy of the application form, together with the check payment sealed in an envelope, shall be separately delivered to DFA main office thru electronic and postal services, respectively. The DFA main office will then authorize the printing and issuance of renewed passport if it finds the documentation is in order. From there, the finished passport will be sealed in an envelope and the post office will either deliver it to given address of the applicant or at the designated DFA regional and satellite offices for personal pick up of the applicant. Aside from helping decongest the DFA’s much-criticized online application scheduling system, Abadilla assured that the idea of using the post office would also help eliminate the queues and crowds at DFA offices as applicants can just file renewals in their respective city or provincial capital post offices. But before this can be implemented, Abadilla underscored the need for the DFA and the PhilPost to first refine the procedure, train relevant postal personnel, sign a memorandum of agreement and assign a pilot area before embarking on a nationwide scale. This, he said, would require an increase in DFA personnel to handle the applications forwarded through the postal office. In the United States, applicants securing or renewing passports are required to first fill-up the application form online thru the State Department website. The will then submit the form to the nearest postal office where the biometrics and payments shall be made. Passport delivery in the US is also handled by their postal service. For the past several weeks, the DFA has been under fire especially from many social media users who criticized its overbooked online appointment system. As of this writing, the next available slot for online applicants is in July, or five months from now.