Bad news to those who are in a rush to travel abroad.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has just announced to the public that all new passport applications and renewals processed on Saturdays and during consular outreach missions are subject to the Express Processing Fee of P1,200. This is an increase of P200 from the previous P1,000.
This came despite the department’s continuous backlog in its online passport processing.
According to the DFA, any Saturday transaction is considered a “service requiring special consideration.”
“Such transactions are therefore subject to the express processing fee of Php 250, which is added on top of the regular processing fee of the service,” it said in its announcement issued over the weekend.
The DFA said the increased fee is applicable to all its Satellite Consular Offices and Regional Consular Offices that are open to serve the public on Saturdays.
Passport application has always been an issue of concern to the public even with the transfer of printing and manufacturing of passports from the Bangko Sentral and Pilipinas to state-owned APO Unit Production. (Roy Mabasa)