Passports releasing temporarily transferred to Pasay mall

MANILA – Passports for pick-up at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Aseana will be released at the Double Dragon Plaza in Pasay City starting Sept. 24.

The DFA, in an advisory on Thursday night, said passports would be released at Islas Pinas in Double Dragon from Mondays to Fridays (except public holidays), from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

DFA-Aseana is currently getting long lines of applicants following the transfer of appointments from consular offices in Metro Manila to the main office after some of its personnel tested positive for coronavirus.

The situation was aggravated by the large number of applicants who were personally picking up their passports at the Aseana following the severance of relations with DFA’s courier service provider.

To date, over 2,000 passports were rendered undeliverable due to erroneous addresses or the lack of authorization letters from applicants who were not personally present at their declared addresses.

These passports were then turned over to the DFA for release to the applicants themselves.

“The Office of Consular Affairs is doing its best to serve clients in a timely manner, and there is no need to go to DFA Aseana very early in the morning to be able to avail of consular services within the day,” the agency said.

The DFA is planning to open more temporary offsite passport services sites in the National Capital Region and other provinces to ease the number of applicants in Aseana and its 36 other consular offices nationwide.

“The Department requests the public’s cooperation as it strives to deliver passport services to the public while ensuring the public’s safety and health,” it said.