DFA Passport Delivery Courier Follow Up Phone Numbers

Bonjour. Mabuhay.

In case you wanna know. Here are the follow up numbers per courier present at the DFA in ASEANA that provides passport delivery services:

2GO 854-0854 or 62

LBC 480-8440/846-5889 OR 567-3319 or 25 (There are two service providers present)

AIR21 855-8448

DHL 879-8888

Calling theses numbers, they should be able to advise you on the status of your passport. Hope this helps.

A Guide To Getting A DFA Passport Appointment Online

Bonjour. Mabuhay.

Getting a passport appointment via web? Here's a step by step guide I found (in Filipino):

1. Mag-log-on sa www.passport.com.ph

2. Sa kaliwang bahagi ng page, i-click ang "Set an Appointment" button. Dadalhin ka nito sa Set an Appointment page.

3. Sagutin ang reCaptcha para makapagpatuloy.

4. Sagutan ang Online Application Form at i-click ang "Submit" button.

5. Basahin ang mga Important Reminders at tandaan ang mga Requirements.

6. Pumili ng petsa at oras ng appointment na iyong gusto.

7. Kung nais na magpalit ng petsa o oras ng appointment, i-click lamang ang "back" button sa inyong browser at pumili ng bagong petsa o oras. (Tandaan na ang unang napiling petsa at oras ay mapapalitan ng bagong pinili.)

8. I-confirm ang appointment sa pamamagitan ng pag-click sa link na matatagpuan sa e-mail na ipapadala sa inyo ng DFA Passport Appointment System. Ipapakita sa inyo nito ang inyong Digital Application Form.

9. I-print ang inyong Digital Application Form sa Long Size (8.5in x 13in) na bond paper. (Huwag munang pipirmahan)

10. Dalhin ang Printed Application Form sa DFA Aseana sa petsa at oras na napili.

Kung sakaling nais ninyong magpalipat ng appointment matapos ng ma-print ang application form, maari itong gawin sa pamamagitan ng pag-ulit ng steps mula sa step 1. Tandaan lamang na maka-kansela ang unang napiling petsa at oras ng bagong mapipili kahit na hindi ito i-confirm sa e-mail.

You can find the full graphic detail here.

Beware of fixers.

DFA Passport Delivery

Mabuhay. Bonjour.

Been in the DFA lately to get a new or renew an old passport?
I bet you saw the lines not only in the application area but also in the claiming area where passports are going to be released.

As news of the six-month gestation period where the DFA will keep unclaimed passport circulates, it is now a wise move to claim it or otherwise lose it and all the effort and money you put into getting one.

If you are not sure if you can claim your passport, then I advise that you have it delivered. There is a delivery option counter present at the second floor of the DFA where you can choose which courier company can deliver your passport. The companies that can deliver your passport are:

1. 2GO
2. LBC
3. AIR21
4. DHL

You can choose which one you are comfortable with, all fo rthe same price of P120. Save time and effort, and most specially, save the embarrassment of having your passport expire on their stay on the safekeeping period the DFA has allotted.

Know more about other delivery services here.

Fare Hike...is it Fair?

Bonjour. Mabuhay.


Now that news abound about major price hikes on every fares, the time to save money has never been more imminent. Dapat mas wise ka na ngayon, every peso counts. Soon every centavo will count na rin, baka mag comeback na si Lapu-Lapu in his one-centavo glory :).

On the news section regarding MRT/LRT fare hike, where we foresee that the poor may pay more, was the question really a question to begin with? The Filipino people always pay more in these days than in the old days. Now i understand when older people recollect about the "good ole days". Indeed, minsan, it is good in the old days.

To quote: ..."The recently approved increase for Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Metro Rail Transit (MRT) fares, which average about 56%, is a good example of this truism.

How much commuters will actually pay depends not just on where they are and where they want to go but on the type of ticket they can afford to buy. There are two choices -- single-journey, which is good for a one-way trip, or stored-value, which can be used several times until the pre-loaded value is used up.

Let’s say you’re a daily wage laborer taking the Light Rail Transit (LRT ) Line 1 train from Baclaran to Tayuman in Manila using a single-journey ticket, perhaps because the P100 stored-value card is beyond your budget. If the government’s proposed fare increase for the 3 urban rail systems pushes through in March, you will end up paying twice for your one-way ticket.

From P15 today, it will cost P30 a few months from now. That’s an increase of P15 or 100%."




Be smart. Research the time and money saving options available to you. If you don't need to travel, then don't. Make things come to you instead.

Check out this blog on and NSO certificate delivery saving option that might be useful.

til next time.

CAR wins back the PSQ National Finals 2010 trophy

A Medical Laboratory Science student from the Saint Louis University (SLU)-Baguio City won the first place in the 19th Philippine Statistics Quiz (PSQ) National Finals held at the Assembly Hall, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Manila on December 8, 2010. It was the fourth time for the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) to dominate in the annual competition. Moreover, CAR was also represented by college freshmen from SLU-Baguio City when it grabbed the national championship trophy in 1999 and in 2008. 

Gabrielle Paul S. Pascual, along with two other contestants, scored seven correct answers in round 1 putting them only on the second spot behind the national finalist from Region XI who was the top scorer at the beginning of the Quiz for having garnered a total of eight points. At the end of the second round, Pascual solely trails one point to the 16 points scored by the representative from Region VIII. It was a neck to neck battle among the 13 finalists who made it to the final and difficult round. CAR, Regions VI, and XI answered six out of 10 doubled-point questions apiece. When the accumulated scores in all the three rounds of questions and answers on statistical concepts, theories and problems were tabulated, Pascual earned the lead with a total of 27 points, enough to declare him as the national winner. 

Second placer in the Quiz was Clar Don L. Evangelio, a BS Civil Engineering student from Visayas State University (Eastern Visayas). Although Evangelio's and the 3rd placer's cumulative scores were tied at 26 points after the final round, no tie-breaking question was administered. As set forth in the contest rules by the PSQ Technical Committee, in the event of a tie in the cumulative scores after the last round, the ranking of the contestants will be determined by their scores in round 1. Evangelio got seven points in the first round while the 3rd placer Agnes U. Casiano, a BS Chemical Engineering from University of Saint La Salle, Bacolod City (Western Visayas) got only five points. 

The announcement of the winners was made by Dr. Mercedes B. Concepcion of the National Academy of Science and Technology who chaired the three-member Board of Judges. The two other judges for the national finals were former National Statistics Office (NSO) Deputy Administrator Nelia R. Marquez and Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) Director Romeo S. Recide.

Prior to the awarding of prizes, BSP Deputy Governor Diwa C. Guinigundo, congratulated the Quiz organizers and the students as well as their coaches in his message. He remarked that "the proficiency that they (the youth) have developed, as ably harnessed by the PSQ, will collectively increase the skills level of the workforce and drive the task of nation-building to a higher and better likelihood of success." 

NSO Administrator Carmelita N. Ericta and Dr. Vicente B. Valdepeas, Jr., President of the Philippine Statistical Association, Inc., chairperson and co-chairperson, respectively, of the 2010 PSQ National Steering Committee presented the cash prizes and specially designed trophies to the top five national winners. 

The Philippine Population Count...the demographic advantage

Bonjour. Mabuhay.

Found an interesting topic regarding the increasing population count of the country as per NSO's census activities.

It seems that there are pros and cons to ponder on...
This article may be a good read if you have time to spare.

Giving up the demographic advantage
A LAW EACH DAY (Keeps Trouble Away) By Jose C. Sison (The Philippine Star)
Updated November 29, 2010 12:00 AM

The proponents and supporters of the RH bill repeatedly point out and continue to harp on our alleged overpopulation problem as the main reason why the bill should be enacted into law. They cite the fact that our population continues to increase as there are now 90 million Filipinos and still counting, so that by 2025 they project that there will be 120 million Filipinos already. But is there really a population explosion in the Philippines?

To answer this question, our Congressmen and Senators, and even the President should not just rely on the current state of our population as commonly perceived. They should examine the facts and figures compiled by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on our population growth rate over the decades. Statistics show that over the past 50 years starting 1960 up to the present, there is a continuing decline in the growth rate of our population. From 3.01% in 1960-70, it became 2.75% in 1970-80, then 2.35% in 1980-90, 2.34% in 1990-2000, 2.04% in 2000-2007 and 1.95% in 2005-2010. 
This record of decline over the past 50 years is the best and most reliable proof that there is no population explosion in our country and that the population growth rate will continue to decline in the decades to come.

Of course our population is still increasing because we have not yet reached zero or negative growth rate. But it is not high anymore at 1.95% as to cause alarm that the RH bill supporters and proponents are raising. For a clearer perspective of our present population growth and the inevitable consequences if the RH bill is passed, let me quote again from the article, “RH bill Revisited” of ex-Senator Tatad. He said:

“This growth rate is not high, but the real numbers continue to grow because people finally ‘stopped dying like flies’. The average worker in the Philippines is much younger than his counterpart in most of the world, giving us a long term edge that has been lost forever in so many countries. Population controllers and their propagandists, however, continue to alarm us about our supposedly ‘exploding’ numbers, without looking at the age structure, which puts us above most everybody else, when the world’s most serious problem is irreversible ageing, ‘de-fertilization’, ‘depopulation’ and ‘dechristianization’ now changing the face of Europe.

Writing in the November/December 2010 issue of the prestigious US quarterly journal, Foreign Affairs, Nicholas Eberstadt, one of the world’s most respected demographers, reports that ‘almost all of the world’s developed countries have sub-replacement fertility, with overall birth rates more than 20 percent below the level required for long term population stability. But developed countries account for less than a fifth of the world’s population; the great majority of the world’s population with sub-replacement fertility in fact reside in the low income societies…Between now and 2020, the global supply of potential workers is set to grow more slowly than in the previous two decades. According to U.S. Census Bureau projections, the absolute increase in the world’s working age population(15- 64) between 2010 and 2030 will be around 900 million, 400 million fewer than over the past two decades. The projected average rate of global manpower growth for the coming decades is 0.9 per year, only half the rate for the period between 1990 and 2010…It is not alarmist to warn that there is no time to lose in recognizing — and adopting to — the enormity of the world’s unavoidable demographic challenges.

Our situation in the Philippines is tragic and perverse. We are being asked to renounce our enormous natural demographic advantage as a great liability and to embrace the costly and ruinous population policies of the West that have long failed”.

So only the proponents and supporters of the RH bill say that the Philippine population is growing too fast. Statistics say otherwise. Raising the alarm of overpopulation all the more proves that the bill’s real and ultimate objective is population control. They are just hiding this real objective by adopting the western sponsored family planning programs supposedly in the exercise of “responsible parenthood” by the couple, and in promoting “reproductive health” of women by giving them the right to an “informed choice” between the method of using contraceptive and the natural family planning. The objective here is to reduce the size of the population in developing countries like the Philippines considering the overall effects of population growth in developing countries on the economic and security interest of the U.S. (1974 Kissinger report or the National Social Security Memorandum, NSSM 200).

In this connection, let me share another interesting angle on this western population policy written by a Canadian analyst Abid Ullah Jan (http://albalagh.net.population/brutal.shtml). He says that it is the “most populous nations who will dominate the world in the next century” particularly “23 countries with the largest populations’ that includes the Philippines. This is what was written about the Philippines:

“Fully 71 percent of the males in the Philippines between the age of 15 and 49 are fit for combat with over 700,000 more expected to join their number annually. It explains the eagerness of western countries to encourage births at home, while demanding at the very same time to take outrageous steps to prevent fertility in developing world to avoid a shift in the balance of power at some time in the future. This also explains the otherwise inexplicably cruel programs of structural adjustment, the conversion of agriculture to export production, and other policies that impoverish the developing nations. The ‘overpopulation’ propaganda may be simple. And it may have been freely circulated around the world for so long that it has come to be taken for granted. Its contradictions are not invisible. And suspicions of evil motivation do not die. Rather they grow in proportion to the pressures from overseas”.

Legislators, please take note.

Maybe we should all take note :)

DFA Warns the Public Against Passport Fixers

Bonjour. Mabuhay.

Just to reiterate so you won't get victimized by fixers. here's the full article.

Last June 2010 The Department of Foreign Affairs-Office of Consular Affairs (DFA-OCA)warned the public against unscrupulous and enterprising individuals who charge exorbitant fees in exchange for a passport appointment.

DFA-OCA wishes to clarify that getting an appointment for passport processing is FREE and may be done in two ways:

1.    By calling telephone number 737-1000, or
2.    By logging on to www.passport.com.ph

DFA-OCA does not authorize any of its personnel to offer passport-related services (particularly appointments) to the public inside or outside of its premises.

The public is further advised not to deal or transact any business with any of these people or even offices near the DFA offering passport-related services to avoid being victimized.

Any inquiries or urgent concerns or requests may be directed to any of the DFA-OCA Public Assistance personnel.

DFA-OCA can provide assistance to applicants with urgent passport requirements provided that sufficient proof of urgency is submitted.

Finally, the cooperation of the public is requested by reporting any suspicious and anomalous offers regarding passports to the Office of the Passport Director.



 Bear in mind, na walang manloloko sa taong disiplinado :)

DFA Passport Experience : on photo capturing

Bonjour. Mabuhay.

Finished passport application. Whew. Was a blast. Something I learned when they start getting your photo for the passport.

While inside the Passport Enrollment Section.

Here are some Guidelines to be followed:


YOUR POSE
Your frontal pose looking directly at the camera lens and showing your full face must be used. Rotation or tilting of the head either in an up/down or left/right direction must be avoided. The mid points of the mouth and the bridge of the nose should lie on an imaginary vertical line in the center of the image.

EXPRESSION
Your expression should be neutral with both eyes open and mouth closed. There should be no hair covering the eyes. Contrived expressions such as raised eyebrows, squirting or frowning are not acceptable.

SMILING
When having their photos captured, applicant may smile, but without showing their teeth and gums. The ‘Mona Lisa’ smile is recommended.

EYEGLASSES/CONTACT LENSES
Eyeglasses should always be removed before capturing the applicant’s photo.
The use of contact lenses for medical reasons is accepted, provided that the contact lenses do not change the applicant’s true eye color. Therefore, applicants are advised to take off their contact lenses before having their photos captured.

EARS SHOULD BE VISIBLE
As much as possible, both ears of the applicant should be visible.

EARRINGS/HAIR ACCESSORIES
These accessories should be removed prior to photo capturing. Frizzy/afro hairstyles should be neatly arranged showing full frontal facial image.
For men, wearing earrings is not allowed.

INFANTS
Infants or very small children who are unable to support themselves should be assisted by either parent or their guardians. Hands, arms, etc., used to support the child should not be visible. High-chair for minor applicants may be used, if needed.

Keep these in mind when you get to the DFA. You do not need to bring any photos, your photo and biometrics will be taken onsite. Bring your printed application form with the barcode printed on top. This is acquired when you get your passport appointment. :)

How to obtain an NSO Authenticated Certification?

Bonjour. Mabuhay.

Now that the All Saint's Day festival is done, we get back to the basics; that is getting info and spreading the word :)

Here's a guide on how to obtain an NSO Authenticated Certification:

1. In Person - By going to NSO Serbilis Centers nationwide. Click here for outlet locations near you.

2. By Postal Service System - By sending a mail to The Civil Registrar General National Statistics Office P.O. Box 779, Manila Philippines. Check out their website at http://philpost.gov.ph

3. Through Phone - By calling NSO Birth Certificate Delivery (02) 737-1111. Check it out at Citizen Services.

4. Via Internet - By logging-on to www.birthcertificates.com.ph


Next post will be about Frequently Asked Questions and NSO certificate definitions. :)