Joel expects surge in passport applications as Covid protocols ease

Amid the easing of Covid-19 cases, the government should open more off-site passport processing centers in malls outside of Metro Manila, Senator Joel Villanueva said on Wednesday.

The chair of the Senate labor committee said the move of the Department of Foreign Affairs to open six Temporary Off-Site Passport Services (DFA-TOPS) in NCR last month is “a great solution that should be replicated and scaled up” nationwide.

Passport processing, the senator added, is “an important employment assistance not only to OFWs but to first-time job seekers.”

“Well, in a sense, you can view it as job generation activity,” Villanueva said.

As travel restrictions get rolled back globally, this will open up economies that will take back furloughed workers, many of whom were Filipinos, the chair of the Senate labor and employment committee said.

Villanueva praised Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin for expanding the passport intake capacity of the DFA by ordering the opening of more DFA-TOPS sites.

“Maganda po ang ginawa ni Secretary Locsin. Kung mapaparami pa po ang mga yan, mababawasan ang backlog sa passport applications,” Villanueva said.

The latest report by the DFA said some 420,205 OFWs affected by the COVID economic slowdown were repatriated with government help since the pandemic shut down businesses.

“For many of them, the forced vacation is over. And some of them may have expired passports. The rush to renew this indispensable travel document is what is causing the logjam in passport applications,” Villanueva said.

In anticipation of the global economic reopening next year, the government should make sure that OFWs have the necessary documents with them, he said.

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)