The vans that will help bring consular services to remote areas in the country, were turned over to Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano by APO, the company that prints passports for the department.
The delivery brought to eight the number of ‘Passport on Wheels’ vans.
The vans are equipped with five data-capturing machines that can process 500 applications a day per van. With the additional vans, according to Cayetano, the number of passport applications that can be accommodated daily will increase by 4,000.
“What we want to do is to double our capacity. Our intention is for everybody to get an appointment for passport (application) within one week,” he said. The DFA intends to roll out the new vans on May 18 after testing of equipment and training of personnel have been completed.
The ‘Passport on Wheels’ programme was launched on January 15 and has since served 82 cities, towns, offices and organisations from Luzon to Mindanao, particularly in Davao City.
Since April 30, the ‘Passport on Wheels’ vans have served a total of 94,422 passport applicants. The DFA is planning to roll out two megavans that are capable of processing more passport applications a day.
Cayetano said the department was hoping to double its capacity to ease the difficulty in getting online passport appointments by introducing various programmes like the e-payment system and opening new consular offices.
Other programmes include extending the operation of DFA Aseana to Saturday, increasing daily capacity of all consular offices, expanding courtesy lanes to sectors who need them most and cracking down on fixers and scammers.