by pinoy_guy

to my fellow Filipinos dreaming of working in the US,

Get your Philippine Passports ASAP.


http://www.manilatimes.net/national/...70313top6.html

“In the testimony of Assistant Secretary Domingo Lucenario during the court hearing, he clearly stated that the country’s passport supply is only up to June this year. It takes at least seven months for the BSP to deliver new passports,” he said.

. . .

“Once the supply of passports runs out, and unless there is a way to go around the legal skirmishes, the constitutional right to travel of thousands of Filipino travelers and our overseas Filipino workers could be seriously impaired,” he added.

if they run out of passports by June, and it takes at least 7 months to get new passports...this means there'll be a shortage of Philippine Passports from July 2007 to January 2008.

we cannot travel to the US, or anywhere else, without passports.

lifting of Retrogression will be of no use to us if we don't have passports.

Re: Get your Passports ASAP

Thanks for the latest update pinoy_guy!

Re: Get your Passports ASAP

thanks for the info! I've got to renew my passport ASAP!

Re: Get your Passports ASAP

Wow, we (2006 both June and Dec) seem to be a jinxed batch.

Re: Get your Passports ASAP

Originally Posted by cherrycoke

Wow, we (2006 both June and Dec) seem to be a jinxed batch.

no, not jinxed.

we all (including other batches) suffer for the...illogical actions of others.

we will be in the same situation in the US too.

this is why I'm pointing out the problems we're facing.

so we can do something about it, while there's still time.

and not grouse about things.

this passport shortage is really bad news.

get your passports ASAP, the lines at the DFA are no joke. have to get in line early in the morning.

the estimate of getting new passports by Feb 08 is if they do something about it now. they're not. elections are taking center stage.

I think the passport shortage will go past Feb 08 unless they enact some emergency measures. (do they have the budget for it???)

good luck everyone.

Re: Get your Passports ASAP

The deadline issued by the Int'l Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for all contracting states ( 180 in all, including the Philippines) to begin issuing solely ICAO-standard machine readable passports (MRP's) is still on April 1,2010 ( although, 15 countries want an earlier deadline of April 1, 2008 for aviation security).

http://www.icao.int/icao/en/nr/2005/pio200514_e.pdf

I wonder why the DFA won't be able replenish till then? A court battle again?

Re: Get your Passports ASAP

Originally Posted by Aquarian

I wonder why the DFA won't be able replenish till then? A court battle again?

money.

the government inserted a lot of miscellaneous expenses into the proposed National Budget (that could not be audited)...and the Senate (as their mandate required) balked at passing it.

so there was a deadlock, the National Budget had not been passed for the last 3 years (I think), and the previous year's budget had been reenacted.

the last enacted budget had no provision for passports nor for elections.

thus the present scenario.

I don't think things will be improving in the next 5 to 10 years.

so the best thing to do is to get our passports and get on the next plane out.

otherwise we'll have to pay a Philippine hospital to work, so we can get experience...while waiting for the shortage of passports to stop and the Retrogression to be lifted.

by the way...things can only get worse, as the National Budget they will be using is 1 Trillion Pesos.

no way can the government get that kind of money. (the reason our economy is still surviving is because of OFW remittances--estimated to be P14 Billion this year.)

the easiest way would be to devalue the Peso after the Elections.

maybe an Economist can enlighten us on this aspect.

Re: Get your Passports ASAP

Originally Posted by Aquarian

I wonder why the DFA won't be able replenish till then? A court battle again?

you're also right.

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/34225/DF...-by-April-2010

DFA: RP passports may expire by April 2010

Cristobal lamented that the DFA still could not issue machine-readable passports up to now because of a two-year-old court battle.

Re: Get your Passports ASAP

If I get a passport now, will it be valid until 2010 before the e-passport implementation?

Re: Get your Passports ASAP

I just renewed last month. Valid 'til 2012.