GenSan, Cotabato and Butuan will have a passport office soon!

Good news to all residents of GenSan, Cotabato and Butuan soon they will no longer have to commute to Davao City or Cagayan de Oro City to get or renew their passports. They will have their own passport processing offices soon.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered the “immediate opening” of six additional regional consular offices of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), half of them in Mindanao: Cotabato, General Santos and Butuan,

The President’s directive is embodied in Executive Order 748 issued on Aug. 28, 2008, “to effect an efficient delivery of basic public services by bringing it closer to the people.”

The Regional Consular Offices are mandated “to process and issue passports and to extend various consular services to Filipinos and non-residents alike.”

Aside from the three Mindanao cities, the other areas where consular offices will be set up are the cities of Bacolod, Puerto Princes and Baguio.

At present, residents of Cotabato, General Santos and the neighboring provinces of Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato, North Cotabato, Maguin-danao and Shariff Kabunsuan and the three Davao provinces have to go to Davao City to have their passports processed.

At present, too, residents from Caraga region – the two Agusans and two Surigaos — and Bukidnon have to go to Cagayan de Oro for the same service.

Source

Posted in: Butuan, Cotabato, DFA, GenSan, Passport