Filipinos Enraged Over DFA’s Fully Booked Passport Appointment Slots
The first step in renewing or getting your first passport is by booking a schedule on the Department of Foreign Affair’s website. However, for the majority of Filipinos, this has been an impossible task to accomplish recently, as DFA’s schedule has been fully booked until March. Additionally, according to DFA’s website, the schedules for April and onwards have yet to be opened.
A handful of netizens have been posting their frustration on Facebook and Twitter, with some claiming that all schedules until March have been fully booked, since December 2017.
Meanwhile, others have alleged that “syndicates” are hoarding the schedules and are behind this DFA fiasco. According to a netizen, many travel agencies are selling appointment schedules for as much as ₱7,000.
In September last year, DFA has already barred travel agencies from getting appointment slots to make room for individual passport applicants. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore since travel agencies are still selling appointment slots for a steep price, compared to the regular processing fee of DFA, which ranges from ₱900 to ₱1,200.
On January 12, 2018, the DFA announced that it will open all the slots in their passport appointment site to address the issue.
[Source]
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