The revamped Philippine Passport law with 10 years validity might not come cheap says the Department of Foreign Affairs, after the bill passed on its third and final reading this week.

Current passport fee is at 950PHP. With the 10-year validity, it might go up from 1,900-2,000PHP, priced twice for the current ones. Ricarte Abejuela of the DFA Office of Consular Affairs Passport Director is looking into changing the materials since the passport might be thicker than the current one. “Definitely, the materials will change. The materials are, of course, a bit more expensive because we want the booklet to be durable enough to last 10 years. We are also going to increase the number of pages so definitely there are corresponding increases in cot as well.”

Both the House of Representatives and Senate passed their own versions of the revamped Philippine Passport Law of 1996 and once both parties merge for a deliberation, this bill will then be forwarded to the President where he will sign and put into law, or veto and trash the said bill.i

The DFA, however, explained that not all passports will be given the 10-year validity. Passports of minors aged three and below will only have 3-year validity and minors from four to 18 years will get 5 years. The DFA has also not yet set a date of implementation of the possible new law citing issues on Implementing Rules and Regulations policy will still be discussed.

Source: GMA