Cayetano open to printing PH passports in HK

Cayetano

PHILIPPINE Foreign Affairs Sec. Alan Peter Cayetano said he was open to the proposal to print Philippine passports in Hong Kong instead of having them printed in Manila and sent to post via courier.

“We have a technical working group now in Congress and they have visited other countries that have done so. Ayaw lang namin ma-interrupt iyong 15,000 to 20,000 passport applications every day,” Cayetano told Hong Kong News recently.

He added that they were looking for ways to retain the security features of Philippine passports if they would be printed in overseas posts.

“We are also looking for alternative or supplements of how to do it. So, if we can figure out how to do it without sacrificing the security functions, we’re open to it. Right now ang mangyayari is to continue muna and then the same passport pero 10 years ang validity,” Cayetano said.

“The changes that are being proposed are being studied at basta hindi maantala ang present [system], we’re not afraid to make those reforms,” he added.

During Cayetano’s first meeting as DFA chief with the Filipino community in Hong Kong in July, migrant domestic workers pressed the Philippine government to send a printing machine here in the city to cut the expenses incurred by Filipinos who renew their passports.

Dolores Balladares-Pelaez, chairperson of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong, told Hong Kong News there was a plan that, besides data capturing here, printing should also be done in the post to reduce costs.

Presently, data capturing is held at the post and then the applicant’s data is sent to the National Printing Office in Manila. Once printing is completed, the passport is sent to the overseas post via a courier service.

Besides being expensive, it takes months before the new passport is delivered to the applicant.

That’s the plan,” Balladares-Pelaez said. Eman Villanueva, chairperson of Bayan Hong Kong and Macau, said the Philippine post here should follow the practice of other consulates in Hong Kong which print their passports here.

Cayetano said passport applications in the Philippines increase between four and seven percent annually, or an additional 400,000 to 700,000 new applicants every year.