E-Passporting served thousand Oroquietanons

By PJTremedal, BNDMisOC-CIB/OCM

Oroquieta City – More or less a thousand Oroquietanons had received DFA service late this week.

City Government under its new leadership, City Mayor Jason P. Almonte thru his team accommodating the DFA personnel’s led by Mr. Raymund C. Ondiano of DFA Regional Consular Office 10 based in Cagayan de Oro City arrived August 20, 2010 with his staff to serve Oroquietanons in acquiring passports.

Thru the DFA e-passporting system, thousand’s of Oroquietanons line-up to be accommodated during the session gathered at the ABC Gym. Ms. Dinna R. Bulawan of the General Services Office who was designated passport coordinator done her job amidst complaints from people who wants to be served first by the DFA staff.

With the complaints, DFA and the City government staff who with soft heart and calmed behaviors manage to pacify things and the mobile e-passporting was still a success, this the city mayor thru a text message said that,

“With the exigency of service, with or without complaints we have to serve the people of the city, with those complaints it is but natural to face them without hesitations that we have to raise up our heads to let them see us professionally serving them.” the mayor said.

DFA’s mobile passporting is the latest scheme of the department’s public service program, bringing government service to the people. It made passporting easy and nearer to its public. For your passport application, you can now enjoy the convenience of getting an appointed date, time, and option for passport delivery. Requesting for new passport or passport renewal is now made accessible, all you have to do is provide your personal info online and choose an available date and time convenient for you. Applying for a Philippine passport is now efficient and world class.

This is a FREE service provided for the convenience of Filipinos. There is no charge for making an appointment with the DFA. The new system aims to bring the passport application for passport renewal and new passport processing service at par with world class consular services. The service also comes with an option for passport delivery. The new appointment system is available for free. The system is designed to help eliminate long queues formed with the old walk-in system, as the applicants would be pre-processed using information given via the hotline or online. With the Departments Appointment system, and its mobile e-passporting scheme, Filipinos now can avail e-passports.

E-Passport is a passport which features microchip technology. An integrated circuit (chip) within its pages contains the data that are essential in verifying the identity of the passport holder. These data include the personal data found on the data page of the passport, the biometrics of the passport holder, the unique chip identification number, and a digital signature to verify the authenticity of the data stored on the chip.

The Philippine e-Passport allows information stored on the chip to be verified with the information visually displayed on the passport. It uses contactless microchip technology that allows the information stored on the chip to be read by special chip readers at a close distance. It contains an integrated photograph of the holder, a digitized secondary photo, and an electronic print of the holder’s signature. It contains overt and hidden security features such as Invisible Personal Information (IPI), letterscreen, microprinting, and UV reactive ink, among others.

The e-Passport is highly secure, hence avoids passport reproduction and tampering. The e-Passport database is enhanced with AFIS those guards against multiple passport issuances to the same person and enhances imposter detection. It facilitates fast clearance of travelers at immigration checks. E-Passports provide travelers benefits such as use of automated border clearance or “E-gates”, automated issuance of boarding passes, and faster travel arrangements with airlines. For countries, the use of electronic passport also provides better border protection and security.

The e-Passport is the world standard in travel documents. As member of ICAO, the Philippines have an international obligation to enhance the security of its travel documents. The issuance of e-Passports will allow the Philippines to offer world-class consular services to its nationals. Countries have greater confidence and acceptance of the e-Passport since it is enhanced with biometric technology. E-Passports are already being used in more than 60 countries worldwide. In ASEAN, five countries have already issued e-passports (Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia).

In the mobile e-passporting late this week made Oroquietanons happy and economically saves from additional cost in traveling to the consular office. With a fee of P1, 200 per e-passport and free delivery after three weeks, Oroquietanons can save more or less to another thousand pesos for hotel and fares from coming back and forth to Cagayan de Oro City DFA Consular Office-10.