The Department of Foreign Affairs said that there are 3-4 million passport backlogs at the moment due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
DFA Undersecretary Brigido Dulay said the agency’s budget briefing before the House Appropriations Committee that in 2019, the DFA processed 4.8 million passport applications but for 2020, it was only able to process 1.7 million.
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Dulay said that they don’t have exact figures yet on how many have applied for their passports.
“We admit, your honor, that there is a current backlog of around three to four million for passport renewals. And this really stems from the pandemic, which has limited our ability to provide the usual, regular services and passport renewals to a lot of Filipinos,” Dulay told lawmakers.
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He added that the DFA has put offsite locations to address the backlog. (TDT)
