Thursday, May 15, 2008 So: Getting a passport By Michelle P. So Caught in the Net
IF you plan to secure a passport at the Central Visayas office of the Department of Foreign Affairs, I recommend that you meditate before going there and be prepared to accept things the way they are.
Some things like hideous passport photos and smelly armpits are part of life in that office at the corner of Osmena Blvd. and Lapulapu St. in Cebu City.
The DFA 7 consular office serves the provinces of Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental and Siquijor. From Monday to Friday, between 6:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., the small office swarms with people whose watches don’t tell the same time.
The DFA clock is 15 minutes behind the time on your watch. If it’s 1 p.m. on your watch but you don’t see the DFA doors being opened yet, it’s likely it’s only 12:45 p.m. on the DFA clock. You have 15 minutes more of outdoor enjoyment.
If I had not sought an explanation of the procedures from Argel Diano yesterday, a day after I worked on the renewal of my passport, I would forever think that the DFA 7 consular office was a systems mess.
Diano, who works at the DFA 7, graciously answered my questions on the phone. He said things can be confusing to those who don’t know the procedures. Of course.
I saw and heard DFA 7 Director Angel Espiritu on the public address telling applicants what to do and not to, where to go next and “to please switch off your cell phones!”
Espiritu does this everyday, morning and afternoon. He knows that instructions are understood better when spoken than when read. I went to the DFA 7 office with Atty. Jane Paredes and we read the instructions on what to do only to turn to the security guard for help. The guard told us to get a priority number.
This is how Diano explains the schedules.
Issuance of priority numbers starts at 6:30 a.m. Only 150 numbers are given to individual applicants or those who do not have travel agencies facilitating their applications. The morning is devoted entirely to serving the individual applicants.
In the afternoon, it’s the turn of the travel agencies. The representatives of the 53 travel agencies accredited with DFA 7 scramble to be in the first 10 since a rep can hold as many as 20 applications a day. Travel agencies get 300 slots a day.
Passports are released in the afternoon. The processing of passports takes longer now with the new electronic system. If you prefer to have the release of your passport expedited, then you have to pay a little more. But unless you’re in a hurry to get out of the country, go for the regular processing time.
No need to put pressure on those DFA guys.
Senior citizens and those who brave turbulent seas just to secure a passport are accommodated as soon as necessary, assuming they are applying individually. If this is Espiritu’s idea, it’s great. He sees the wasted cost and inconvenience of a fruitless trip.
Senior citizens are easily identifiable but not those who claim they have traveled far. So the DFA 7 asks for proof of their travel such as boat tickets.
It has worked out a system that weeds out the honest and the lying. One can always claim to be a senior citizen who fought off the ungo of Siquijor just to get to Cebu to secure a passport.
Since applying for a passport can eat up your time, I suggest you hire the services of a travel agent so you can do your meditation somewhere, like in Siquijor but not in Bohol though where a passport is required.
