1. You’re right, I did not address the celebrity cutting the line, wala kasing issue dun. It is undeniably wrong.

2. You chose the travel-agency assisted system. There used to be a number system there too, just like in the main floor where the walk-ins go. It didn’t work there. It works for the main floor – in the processing and enrollment section (read a comment here where author said his application was a breeze), but it doesn’t in the travel-agency assisted section. – I pressed my friend from consular about this – he said it just didn’t work. ^^ times daw silang nagmeeting with travel agencies about this, pinag-usapan pinag-isipan at yun ang naisip na pinakamabilis na paraan. Maybe you should advise DFA about the qeueing theory.

3. The herders – Baloney? That’s your opinion. The guys at consular have theirs too. I suspect the travel agencies put them there coz there is certainly no budget in the DFA for them. Why don’t we think of it this way? It’s a way to combat poverty. Binibigyan sila ng hanapbuhay; kesa maging fixers or pickpockets sa crowd.

4. Manual vs. automatic – If I didn’t know any better, I would also think the way you think. DFA can issue a manual passport in 30 minutes. Maiuuwi mo na siya. Kaso hindi mo na siya magagamit ang manual passport because of ICAO Regulations. In the ideal world, dapat mas mabilis ang automated, it really boggles the mind otherwise! But in the real world, THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT CAN ONLY AFFORD LIMITED NUMBER OF MACHINES, WHICH MACHINES ARE STILL SUBJECT OF A COURT CASE AND HALF OF THEM ARE NOT YET PAID SINCE DELIVERY TWO YEARS AGO. Booking people? Because the DFA wants to accommodate the OFW clamoring to go out of the country who would otherwise miss their employment. Kung hindi ipipilit ng DFA na i-stretch yung system, 8 months in advance ang booking para makapagpapassport.

5. Only the Philippine DFA handles 5,000 passports a day. Categorically said. The DFA has the tables – comparisons on how many apps all MFA/DFA handles a day, how much is the cost of the passport, what is the budget of each consular office. You don’t have to go into population and migration patterns.

6. Are we blaming the French? Surely not. There was a bidding process for those machines. Phil embassies all over the world invited and negotiated with companies which could provide the best specs. The French could provide the best – 3,000 passports a day. We are only talking about quality. The budget had to be fought for. It is still being fought. Kung hindi ipinaglalaban ang budget, 1000 passports a day lang ang kakayanin.

7. It was another comment author who implied masungit. Well totoo naman, nasungitan na rin ako when I accompanied my mom to renew her passport. Public school teachers? Their rooms are their own kingdoms, walang crown na naghaharass sa kanila every minute. SM sales ladies? Ang sarap ng trabaho nila compared sa consular staff ha? At mas mataas ang sweldo nila than many consular people. But thats beside the point. I know there are also COS workers in consular, those who get your biometrics – who are paid much higher. Kung maghahanap ng ibang trabaho ang mga taga DFA, sino nalang ang magsisilbi sa taong bayan bilang kawani ng pamahalaan? Sabi mo, hindi ikaw. Government employee din ako. I am doing my Master of Laws and I can surely get a job which would pay 4x what I got from government. May mga tao talagang gustong maglingkod sa bayan, kahit mas malaki kikitain bilang OFW. Isa na ang mga taga DFA. I am not defending masungit, inuunawa ko lang sila. At nung sinungitan ako, ni-remind ko lang yung tao, nagsorry naman.

8. Shortened time – not Phil embassies and consulate. It’s the consulates of other countries. Where I am now, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Myanmar closes at 2 pm. Australia, South Africa, US, UK closes at 1. Spain and Canada closes at 2.30. Egypt closes at 2.30. The Phil Embassy closes at 5.30

9. “The DFA has the ability to control the process, the system, the flow of work, etc. HENCE, it receives the BRUNT of the criticism.” – Alas, only the last sentence is true.

The DFA could DEFINITELY do a better job. But as it is, the DFA is already doing way beyond what can be reasonably expected of it, considering the resources that is allotted to it. You have studied qeueing theory. You should share your knowledge to DFA (but for free, I guess coz it has no budget for consultants). I have studied government, many governments. I can distinguish theory from reality. Between the two of us, I’m sure I am not the more naive. I just have a different way of looking at things, and I do not agree that it is shameful that I do not see things your way.

As I have said, I am not defending the DFA. Ikaw, passport lang ang problema mo. Mas marami akong reklamo sa DFA. May mga bagay lang na wala talaga tayong magagawa, kailangang intindihin dahil hindi tayo America. Pero doon sa pagpapauna sa mga celebrity, I think hindi na mauulit yun, may circular na. And thank you for that.

1. First of all, you FAIL to address the most important and glaring point, that of the celebrity being allowed to cut line. This was WRONG. It was encouraged by a CONSULAR employee. It was condoned by OTHER EMPLOYEES. And it set a simply bad example for hundreds of people to see. There is NO EXCUSE for that behavior. None. Not low pay, not low recognition, not low education, not a lack of intelligence. It was just plain and simply, WRONG. That was the main thrust of the blog, and you IGNORED it.

2. Musical chairs. There is such a science as queueing theory. I didn’t invent it. And it works in many places around the world and in the Philippines as well. No need to keep shuffling between seats, treated like children. If you had a numbering system and people left the building when their number comes up, then they get another number. It’s quite simple. You DON’T need to call a number, just flash it on a screen with an automated voice if you like.

3. Herders are there to expedite a process? Baloney. The only thing the herders did on the morning I was there was point out which window to go to. I think most applicants can figure that out for themselves, you give them too little credit. And if there were NO HERDERS, there would be no one to AID the CELEBRITY in cutting the line. That is the MOST visible thing they did at the DFA that morning I was there.

4. The waiting period of several hours there is due to an inefficient process, not only the masses of applicants. If the system took into account the projected workflows, you would not have to wait as long as you do today. Furthermore, if a MANUAL system just months ago resulted in a week’s wait for your passport, but an AUTOMATED system now results in a four week wait, where is the LOGIC in that? Duh. Furthermore, why have people BOOK APPOINTMENTS with specific times a MONTH in advance if you can’t handle the number of people who are allowed to book the appointments? Double duh.

5. Categorically stating that no other consular office in the world handles 5,000 passport applications a day means you have absolute knowledge of all consular offices on the planet. Don’t you think it is HIGHLY LIKELY that consular offices in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, etc. actually handle far more than 5,000 passports a day? I would bet they do. And I only base that on the obvious link of population and migration patterns.

6. The machines. Let’s blame the French shall we??? HOW ABSURD IS THAT??? If it was reasonably expected that the office would be processing 5,000 passports a day, then why BUY a system that only has a capacity of 3,000 passports a day. I was a strategy consultant by training, and that spurious, unintelligent excuse is LAUGHABLE. What about blaming the FILIPINO who agreed to buy a system that couldn’t meet the expected needs??? Was he forced to buy the system? Did they not think to buy two systems instead of one? And why buy a system at all if the MANUAL SYSTEM in place before was far more productive and FASTER? Absurd logic, with a defense such as this one, it’s no wonder we have national issues…

7. As for “masungit” consular officials, I did not say that at all. I did not experience masungit officials, I only experienced ones that blatantly allowed a celebrity to cut line. Other commenters may have mentioned this, but low salaries are NOT ever an excuse for surly behavior. If they don’t like their job, they should seek another one. By that same line of logic, all public school teachers should be masungit due to low pay, all salespeople in malls should be masungit due to even lower pay, and yet all types of surveys say Filipinos are amongst the happiest people of the planet… Go figure that.

8. As for consular offices in other Philippine embassies or consulates around the world, there is NO LOGICAL reason to have shortened hours. It doesn’t serve their constituencies adequately. Why shouldn’t consular offices be open the whole time an embassy is open. And here your number logic falls flat… if readers are to be believed, several Philippine consulates use a “NUMBERING SYSTEM” abroad. So why would it work there, but not in our own country? Why would Philippine airlines use a numbering system in their major reservations offices? Why do the LTO offices process thousands of applications for driver’s licenses daily without having to resort to herders, seat-cleaning processes, etc.?

9. I have no problem with high fees, as long as there is SERVICE.

10. Of course the DFA is to blame. They are the lead agency in the process of getting the passports. You cannot blame citizens for wanting a passport and hoping to get it in a reasonable amount of time in a reasonably acceptable process. The government is there to SERVE and it is its duty to serve as well as it can given the constraints. But if given a new office, new airconditioners, new systems that rely heavily on automation, but the SERVICE OUTPUT is a passport that takes 3-4x longer than it did with the old building, and less computers, how ridiculous is that? The DFA has the ability to control the process, the system, the flow of work, etc. HENCE, it receives the BRUNT of the criticism. If the DFA made it clear that they would NOT tolerate line cutting of any kind, then you wouldn’t expect it to happen so blatantly.

11. And as for your challenge of whether I would work for PHP10,000 at the DFA, I wouldn’t. I would be smart enough to find other employment that would yield for me a better living. But that’s missing the point almost altogether. There are MANY government employees who provide reasonable service for little pay (teachers foremost among them), money is NOT the main driving force. If the people you describe were capable, why don’t they look for other jobs that pay more?

AS FOR THE KEY QUESTION OF WHETHER THE DFA COULD DO A BETTER JOB, I THINK THE OBVIOUS ANSWER AND FELT BY MANY READERS IS THAT IT DEFINITELY COULD. Making excuses like volume of applications, a screwed up French system that a Filipino chose to buy and implement despite insufficient capacity, low salaries, etc. is just a pathetic line of logic. Filipinos working abroad produce such an incredible flow of income and foreign exchange for the country, so much so that without it we would be wallowing at the bottom of the group of Third World countries, that it BEHOOVES the government and the DFA to at least have a decent, timely, easy and fair system for the provision of Philippine passports. IT IS A SHAME YOU DO NOT SEE IT THIS WAY.

The musical chairs – We used to have a queuing system for this but it proved too slow.
(Maybe people are leaving the building and have to called 3x before moving on to the next number. Calling 3x is already taking too much time).
The herders are there for a reason. To expedite the process.
The waiting period is long. It is not because the system is inefficient. It is because the number of passport applicants is simply too many and we have too few personnel in proportion (not to mention machines).

My say:

No other consular office in the world processes 5000 passports a day. The consular office of the DFA operates for half the budget of Malaysia that processes only 30 passports a day. And the machines! The French providers could only design a machine that can process 3000 a day and that’s the best provider that the DFA could get already. The machine gets a regular machine overload, of course, it was not designed for the load that it gets.

Pag pasensyahan na ang consular staff na masusungit. Ikaw ba naman ang dumugin ng 5000 katao araw araw. Saan ka nakakita ng trabahong ganyan sa sweldong 10,000 pesos a month? AT ang trabaho ay hanggang 9 ng gabi.

Lahat yata ng Pilipino gustong lumabas ng bansa, kaya ganyan kadami ang sineserbisyuhan araw araw. Dito lang yan sa Pilipinas. Sa ibang bansa, hanggang 1 pm lang bukas ang consular nila para makapag papassport ka.

Ang itinaas ng bayad mula 750 to 950/1200 ay hindi naman para sa serbisyo. Walang kahit singko sa itinaas ng bayad ang napunta sa pagbabayad ng bagong building, ng facilities, ng mga tao. Napunta lahat sa security features na nilagay sa bagong passport. Kung tinaasan pa kahit ng piso ang bayad para yung piso napunta sa serbisyo, magrarally na naman ang Migrante.

Hindi siguro dapat sisihin ang DFA lang. Ang 5000 + na taong dumudumog sa DFA araw araw, ang kawalan ng budget, ang buong pamahalaan, ang mentalidad, ang kultura, ang buong sistema. Ang DFA, ginagawa na ang lahat ng makakaya. Sweldong 10,000/month, 8 am to 9 pm na trabaho, kaya mo?

thank you so much!

I think this is a common thing among us Pinoys — that at the time a ‘deed-crime’ is being committed, no one bothers to say anything at all. The crowd usually waits for the guts of the one “taga-talak” to air their grievances; usually though, no one wants to be the spokesperson of the irate group.

When I finally got in, it took 2 hours to finish the process, I had an 8am appointment. I can only imagine how long it would take if you had a later appointment. You’d be stuck there all day probably.

It’s worse if you have it done overseas, it takes approx. 2 months (which was my case, I should have done it in Canada na!) because they have to send everything back to Manila for processing pa. How silly and impractical.

I heard that the Alabang passport office is much better and quicker. Worth the hassle of going to Alabang daw.