18 June 2010 - The Department of Foreign Affairs-Office of Consular Affairs (DFA-OCA) is warning the public against unscrupulous and enterprising individuals who charge exorbitant fees in exchange for a passport appointment.

DFA-OCA wishes to clarify that getting an appointment for passport processing is FREE and may be done in two ways:

1.    By calling telephone number 737-1000, or

2.    By logging on to www.epassport.com.ph

DFA-OCA does not authorize any of its personnel to offer passport-related services (particularly appointments) to the public inside or outside of its premises.

The public is further advised not to deal or transact any business with any of these people or even offices near the DFA offering passport-related services to avoid being victimized.

Any inquiries or urgent concerns or requests may be directed to any of the DFA-OCA Public Assistance personnel.

DFA-OCA can provide assistance to applicants with urgent passport requirements provided that sufficient proof of urgency is submitted.

Finally, the cooperation of the public is requested by reporting any suspicious and anomalous offers regarding passports to the Office of the Passport Director.  END

18 June 2010 - The Department of Foreign Affairs-Office of Consular Affairs encourages the public to avail of the passport processing and/or renewal in any of the 19 Regional Consular Offices (RCOs) located nationwide.

The RCOs are located in:

The new and highly-secure Philippine electronic passport (epassport) with microchip is now available in said RCOs.  Their addresses are listed in the DFA website (www.dfa.gov.ph).

More RCOs will be opened this year and in the future to further enhance the issuance of passports to all Filipinos travelling overseas.

The Philippine ePassport is also now being issued by the following Foreign Service Posts (FSPs), namely: Agana, Brunei Darussalam, Chicago, Doha, Dubai, Hong Kong, Honolulu, Kuala Lumpur, London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, Osaka, Ottawa, San Francisco, Seoul, Tokyo, Toronto and Washington D.C.

Other FSPs are expected to issue the ePassport in due course.

The Philippine passport is also widely accepted by most commercial establishment as a valid government-issued identity document.  END

18 June 2010 - The Department of Foreign Affairs-Office of Consular Affairs (DFA-OCA) is pleased to announce the re-opening of the Passport Extension Office (PEO) at the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) this month to resume its services to the public, particularly overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

The extension office is expected to re-open once the installation and testing of all equipment for the ePassport system are completed.

OCA wishes to clarify that only OFWs with valid overseas employment certificates are entitled to avail of the passport services in PEO-POEA.

For further passport-related queries, the public may contact the PEO-POEA at (02) 722-1199.  END

20 May 2010 - The Department of Foreign Affairs wishes to inform the public that the Authentication Division of the Office of Consular Affairs will transfer its operations to the main DFA Building in Pasay City on 24 May (Monday) 2010.