DFA Urges Delay in P1.5K Passport Fee Hike Until 2028

The printing agency responsible for producing Philippine passports is seeking a price increase, but Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Theresa Lazaro said the agency has been asked to defer the proposed hike until 2028. Senate finance committee chairperson JV Ejercito said that the APO Production Unit, Inc. has reached out to him with their concern. “They are saying that if they fail to adjust the price, they might be forced to cease their operations and baka mamaya, wala tayong passport by next year… siyempre this will be a big problem,” Ejercito said, citing a letter from the APO Production Unit. (They are saying that if they fail to adjust the price, they might be forced to cease their operations and maybe soon, we will not have a passport by next year… of course, this will be a big problem.) Ejercito said that the printing agency is asking for passport prices to be raised from P950 to P1,500. However, there will be discounted rates of P1,200 for senior citizens and overseas Filipino workers. “Ito pong sulat ng APO is a consequence of certain negotiations. Nung sinabi nila na gusto nilang iakyat ang halaga ng passport from the present P950 to P1,500, ang sabi namin sa kanila, kung puwede niyo i-postpone muna yung pag-increase,” Lazaro said in response. (This letter from APO is a consequence of certain negotiations. When they said that they want to increase the price of the passport from the present P950 to P1,500, we told them that, if it is possible, to postpone the increase.) Lazaro said that the request was reasonable, since the last increase was more than 10 years ago. Adding to this was the extension of the passport’s validity from five years to 10 years. However, Lazaro said that they asked APO to defer this increase since there will be a next-generation passport, which will be launched in the middle of 2028. “You cannot increase the price of a passport within three years,” Lazaro said, citing the Philippine Passport Act. Lazaro said that if they increased prices by January as per APO’s request, it may affect the planned next-generation passport. She also said that the DFA would need to make a communications plan for a passport price hike. Ejercito said that the DFA should let the Senate know if there is a need to subsidize the passports, but admitted that there was a tight fiscal space. —LDF, GMA News