Two days ago, an officemate who went on vacation in the Philippines with his wife called me up to inform that they were victims of Bukas-Kotse gang in Baguio City. It was their last local trip before coming back to Doha on Setember 3 and unfortunately all their legal documents such as passports, visa, e-tickets, marriage certificate were along with the laptop and cash taken by the burglar.
I felt the distress in his voice and knowing how hard is it to get a passport replacement-I can only wish him luck and patience.
True enough, the process was strenuous- they called DFA and was told that in order to get a replacement, they have to present affidavit of loss and police report, NBI clearance and if available, a copy of the old passport. What’s more frustrating was that- they have similar names with NBI records - so again, they have to get barangay clearance/other legal documents and wait for a few more days for it to be released.
We talked about what happened to our officemate over lunch and we found out that most of us were almost victims of passport “raketeers” in DFA.
The fixers outside DFA used the same antics to all of the victims. My officemates said, usually when you get off from a jeep, fx or taxi, someone will greet, befriend and ask you something like this:
“Mag-aapply ka rin ba passport? sabay na tayo…ako din e bago lang ako…” This person seemed to have just got off from a transport too. And then, he or she will guide you to a studio to have your photos taken for like 150-180! Imagine…If you’re naive enough you will believe that the passport photo you brought is not the suitable photo…they will tell you like “Dito daw talaga nagpapakuha, dahil minsan nirereject- e babalik ka pa kaya siguraduhin mo na”…
After that he or she will guide you to a different alley just at the back side of DFA where you will know later that they fixes passports for 5thousand pesos in exchange of fast processing and not having to go through the long line …
In my case, when i got off the taxi- someone greeted me too but was dismayed when i told him i work for the government and i won’t need a fixer to get a passport, hehehe *taray*
the new Machine Readable Passport processing is too long.
u have to wait 7 days to get the new passport if expedited.
14 days for the normal process. 1 month if you are requesting it from an embassy.
what a joke.
in malaysia, the malaysians can get the new passport in one hour!
hi raul, thanks for dropping by, yes mas tumagal pa-di ba dapat mas mabilis kung hi-tech na, hehehe! kaiba talaga sa atin…