THE Office of Consular Affairs (OCA) of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is ready for the expected surge of passport applicants this summer.

OCA Executive Director Wilfredo C. Santos said they have already instituted a lot of reforms to ensure that passport applications are processed and released on time.

He explained apart from hiring additional consular staff, the employees have to work on shifts to ensure that all passport-processing stations are fully manned -- they are required to work on extended hours so that more applications will be processed everyday.

“We are open until 8 p.m. to ensure that all passport applications are attended to,” the executive director stressed.

Santos added the 11 machines which are used to print the passports are being subjected to regular maintenance to prevent them from bogging down.

The number of passport applicants usually doubles during summer vacation. Santos said in Metro Manila, the processing time was reduced by half since the ePassport project was first implemented.

The Consular Section is charging P1,200 for expedite processing which means that applicants can secure their passports after seven working days and P950 for regular processing  or 15 working days.

A total of 11,000 passports are being produced worldwide everyday, 5,000 of which are from Metro Manila.

He said the DFA will soon have a soft opening of a Consular Satellite Office in Cebu as part of the Consular Section’s expansion of services.

Consular Satellite Offices in some malls in Metro Manila will open this year to be able to reach out to a greater number of people. This, apart from the mobile passport services they have been rendering to the provinces.

The DFA signed a Public-Private Partnership deal with mall giant SM to bring to more than P1 billion the savings to be generated by its initiative to transfer its passport offices to shopping malls nationwide, eventually achieving its objective of bringing consular services closer to the public.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert F. del Rosario and SM Prime Holdings President Hans Sy recently signed an agreement for the hosting in SM malls of five consular offices in Metro Manila and in other parts of the country.

“It is a matter of great satisfaction to have entered into this partnership with SM Prime Holdings as the combined PPP arrangements we have entered into with the private sector since the last quarter of 2011 on this initiative now translates to almost P1.04 billion in savings for the government over a period of 10 years,” Del Rosario said.

The PPP arrangements with SM will cover the transfer and hosting of existing consular offices in Davao, Baguio and Batangas and the opening of extension offices at the SM Megamall in Mandaluyong and SM City in Manila, which will occupy a combined floor area of more than 3,400 square meters.

The DFA had earlier entered into similar arrangements with Pacific Mall Corporation, Robinsons Land Corporation and Ayala Land Incorporated for the hosting of consular offices in 11 other locations nationwide.    Cristina Lee-Pisco