There is no truth to allegation that passport appointment slots are being offered on social media, specifically on Facebook, according to Rex Albania, Head of Consular Office of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Bacolod City.
He underscored that their agency is not utilizing social media channels to offer or confirm passport application appointment slots. He added that DFA did not also authorize any company or individual to offer and accept passport appointment scheduling on behalf of its office.
Albania issued the clarification after former Bacolod City Councilor Atty. Jocelle Batapa-Sigue posted on her Facebook account where she called out the agency for allegedly selling passport slots on social media, which she likened to a raffle draw, with names of applicants posted online.
The consular head has cautioned applicants who engaged the services of these unauthorized private entities or individuals on the risk of not getting an authentic appointment or may encountering issues with their applications.
Based on the information that reached Batapa-Sigue, majority of applicants getting who engaged the services of entities offering slots on social media are being charged thousands of pesos to secure an appointment.
As for the availability of online appointment, Albania clarified that it is not DFA-Bacolod that administer the uploading of passport appointment on passport.gov.ph. He advised applicants to regularly refresh the site to book for an appointment as slots for the whole of March 2022 have not yet been loaded.
