NAGA CITY -- The City Government of Naga thru the City Civil Registrar’s Office here headed by the City Civil Registrar Alexander M. Cayetano last January 28-29, 2008 concluded another of its regular mobile passport service (MPS) in coordination with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Regional Consular Office, Legazpi City.

        The activity was a resumption of the service after it was stopped last November 2007 due to unavailability of equipment to be used for processing machine readable passports (MRP) – the new passport now being issued by DFA. Although a quota of 150 applicants was given by DFA, still a total of 192 passports were processed and approved for issuance.

        The new passport will take 15 working days before it will be released as the scripting of passport is now centralized at DFA Manila and no longer at the regional level.

        With the introduction of the new high-tech machine readable passport, it also tagged along additional man hours in the processing of applications. Consequently, DFA has pegged the number of applicants to only 150 to 200 for every mobile passport service. To address the issue, Cayetano said that applicants coming from Naga City shall be given top priority.

        Last year, a total of 2,224 passports were issued as result of the regular mobile passport services held in this city. The regular schedule of MPS is now being done every 4th Monday of the month at the City Civil Registrar’s Office of Naga. Applicants are, therefore, advised to submit their respective application forms at the office a week prior to the scheduled MPS for pre-screening and numbering purpose. Application forms are also available in that office.