Philippine passport - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A Philippine passport
Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....

is a travel document

Travel document

A travel document is an identity document issued by a government or international treaty organization to facilitate the movement of individuals or small groups of persons across international boundaries...

and is a Primary National ID issued to citizens of the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

. It is issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs

Department of Foreign Affairs (Philippines)

The Philippines' Department of Foreign Affairs is the executive department of the Philippine government tasked to contribute to the enhancement of national security and the protection of the territorial integrity and national sovereignty, to participate in the national endeavor of sustaining...

and Philippine diplomatic missions

Diplomatic missions of the Philippines

This is a list of diplomatic missions of the Philippines. The Philippines has a wide network of diplomatic missions in major cities around the world to forward Philippine interests in the areas that they serve, as well as to serve the ever-growing numbers of Overseas Filipinos...

abroad, with certain exceptions. Besides facilitating international travel and conferring diplomatic assistance to Filipinos overseas, a Philippine passport is considered a primary form of identification in the Philippines, particularly because there is no national identity card system in the country.

The passport is a popular target for counterfeiters, due largely to the relatively liberal visa requirements accorded to Philippine travelers to destinations such as Brunei

Brunei

Brunei , officially the State of Brunei Darussalam or the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace , is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia...

, Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

, Malaysia and other APEC

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is a forum for 21 Pacific Rim countries that seeks to promote free trade and economic cooperation throughout the Asia-Pacific region...

and ASEAN

Association of Southeast Asian Nations

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, commonly abbreviated ASEAN rarely ), is a geo-political and economic organization of ten countries located in Southeast Asia, which was formed on 8 August 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Since then, membership has...

member nations. Due to this, the Department of Foreign Affairs started issuing maroon machine-readable passport

Machine-readable passport

A Machine Readable Passport is a travel document where the data on the identity page is encoded in optical character recognition format. Many countries began to issue machine readable travel documents in the 1980s....

s since September 17, 2007, and biometric passport

Biometric passport

A biometric passport, also known as an e-passport or ePassport, is a combined paper and electronic passport that contains biometric information that can be used to authenticate the identity of travelers...

s since August 11, 2009. The green colored cover non-electronic passports are still acceptable until they expire. Philippine passports are printed at the Security Plant Complex of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and commonly abbreviated as BSP is the central bank of the Philippines. It was rechartered on July 3, 1993, pursuant to the provision of the 1987 Philippine Constitution and the New Central Bank Act of 1993...

History

The nature of passports in Pre-Hispanic and Spanish-Era Philippines is generally unknown, and the earliest forms have been issued since the Philippines gained independence from the United States in 1946. Passports were ordered to be printed in Filipino

Filipino language

This move has drawn much criticism from other regional groups.In 1987, a new constitution introduced many provisions for the language.Article XIV, Section 6, omits any mention of Tagalog as the basis for Filipino, and states that:...

for the first time under Diosdado Macapagal

Diosdado Macapagal

Diosdado Pangan Macapagal was the ninth President of the Philippines, serving from 1961 to 1965, and the sixth Vice President, serving from 1957 to 1961. He also served as a member of the House of Representatives, and headed the Constitutional Convention of 1970...

, to be subsequently implemented under Ferdinand Marcos

Ferdinand Marcos

Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, Sr. was a Filipino leader and an authoritarian President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He was a lawyer, member of the Philippine House of Representatives and a member of the Philippine Senate...

. Currently, it is printed in Filipino

Filipino language

with English translations.

With the adoption of the current constitution

Constitution of the Philippines

The Constitution of the Philippines is the supreme law of the Philippines.The Constitution currently in effect was enacted in 1987, during the administration of President Corazon Aquino, and is popularly known as the "1987 Constitution"...

in 1987, the power of issuing passports was transferred from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the current Department of Foreign Affairs. The Philippine Passport Act 1996 governs the issuance of Philippine passports and travel documents. Philippine passports are only issued to citizens, while travel documents (under Section 13) may be issued to citizens who have lost their passports overseas as well as permanent residents who cannot obtain passports or travel documents from other countries.
On May 1, 1995, green covers were instituted on regular passports for the first time, and barcode

Barcode

A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data, which shows data about the object to which it attaches. Originally barcodes represented data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1 dimensional . Later they evolved into rectangles,...

s were inserted in passports in 2004. The new security-enhanced passport is a pre-requisite to the issuance of new machine-readable passport

Machine-readable passport

s which was issued on September 17, 2007. The Philippines used to be one of the few countries in the world and formerly the only country in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

that did not issue machine-readable regular passports, although machine-readable official passports have been issued since June 18, 2007.

Machine-readable passports

In 2006, the DFA in cooperation with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas

started a five-year passport modernization project designed to issue new Philippine machine-readable passport

Machine-readable passport

s (MRP). However, an injunction was issued against the project by a lower court, only to be overturned by the Supreme Court

Supreme Court of the Philippines

The Supreme Court of the Philippines is the Philippines' highest judicial court, as well as the court of last resort. The court consists of 14 Associate Justices and 1 Chief Justice...

and ordering the DFA and the BSP to continue the project.

The new machine-readable passport is designed to prevent tampering through the use of a special features embedded in the passport cover, similar to other machine-readable passports. It will also have more pages than a current passport (44 pages instead of the present 32) and processing and releasing times are expected to be accelerated.

It is also believed that Philippine machine-readable passports will be used in the fight against terrorism

Terrorism

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

. Because of this, personal appearance for applying the new MRP passport is now required and cannot be bypassed. Also, fingerprints are registered into passport and microprinting

Microprinting

Microprinting is one of many anti-counterfeiting techniques used most often on currency and bank checks, as well as various other items of value. Microprinting involves printing very small text, usually too small to read with the naked eye, onto the note or item. Microprint is frequently hidden in...

is found all over the data page of the passport.

It was initially rumoured that effective January 2010 onwards, all handwritten (green) passports will no longer be valid regardless of their original expiration date. Officials from the DFA clarified that the green passports will expire as scheduled on their original expiration dates. However, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) requires all member states to issue machine-readable passports by April 2010, hence some countries may deny entry to Filipinos still in possession of the green, hand-written passports.

Biometric passport

In late July 2008, the DFA has announced plans and the possible implementation of a new Biometric Passport System for new passports. It is expected that the government will start issuing biometric passports by the end of 2009. On August 11, 2009, the first biometric passport was released for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is a Filipino politician who served as the 14th President of the Philippines from 2001 to 2010, as the 12th Vice President of the Philippines from 1998 to 2001, and is currently a member of the House of Representatives representing the 2nd District of Pampanga...

. The new e-passport has various security features, including a hidden encoded image; an ultra-thin, holographic laminate; and a tamper-proof electronic microchip costing at around 950 pesos for the normal processing of 20 days or 1,200 pesos for the rush processing of 10 days.

Restrictions

With the declaration of martial law

Proclamation No. 1081

Proclamation No. 1081 was the declaration of martial law in the Philippines by President Ferdinand E. Marcos. Once in effect, it covered the entire republic on September 21, 1972...

on September 23, 1972, travel restrictions were imposed on Philippine citizens. A letter of instruction restricted the issuance of passports to members of the Philippine diplomatic service

Diplomatic service

Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel enjoy diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to other countries...

, although this was relaxed in 1981 with the lifting of martial law.

In 1983, there were orders from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs not to issue any passports to the Aquino

Benigno Aquino, Jr.

Benigno Simeon "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr. was a Filipino Senator and a former Governor of Tarlac. Aquino, together with Gerry Roxas and Jovito Salonga, formed the leadership of the opposition to the Marcos regime in the years leading to the imposition of martial law in the Philippines...

family. Despite the government ban, Ninoy Aquino

Benigno Aquino, Jr.

was able to acquire one with the help of Rashid Lucman

Rashid Lucman

Haroun al-Rashid Lucman was a Filipino legislator and founder of the Bangsamoro Liberation Organization , a Moro separatist group in Mindanao...

, a former congressman from Mindanao. The passport identified him as Marciál Bonifacio, an alias derived from "martial law" and Fort Bonifacio

Fort Bonifacio

Fort Bonifacio is a highly urbanized district in Taguig City, Metro Manila, Philippines. The district is named after the main Philippine Army camp in Metro Manila, Fort Andres Bonifacio, which in turn was named after the famous Philippine revolutionary hero Andres Bonifacio...

, where he was detained.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, passports were stamped with limitations prohibiting travel to South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

(because of apartheid) and Lebanon

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

(because of the civil war

Lebanese Civil War

The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 150,000 to 230,000 civilian fatalities. Another one million people were wounded, and today approximately 350,000 people remain displaced. There was also a mass exodus of...

). Currently, passports are stamped prohibiting travel to Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

due to the ongoing violence and because of the Angelo de la Cruz kidnapping. However, there are recently issued passports in 2011 that ae not stamped with such Iraq nor any travel prohibition.

Types of passports

There are four types of Philippine passports, three issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and one by the Maritime Industry Authority

Maritime Industry Authority (Philippines)

The Philippines' Maritime Industry Authority , abbreviated as MARINA, is an agency of the Philippine government under the Department of Transportation and Communications responsible for integrating the development, promotion and regulation of the maritime industry in the Philippines.-History:The...

(MARINA). These are currently designated by the colours green or maroon (regular), dark blue (diplomatic), red (official) and light blue (SIRB).

Regular (green/maroon)

A regular passport is issued to any citizen of the Philippines applying for a Philippine passport. It is the most common type of passport issued and is used for all travel by Philippine citizens and non-official travel by Philippine government officials. Those with a green cover indicate that it is handwritten while those with a maroon cover indicate that it is either machine-readable or (if it has the appropriate symbol) biometric.

Diplomatic (blue)

A diplomatic passport is issued to members of the Philippine diplomatic service, members of the Cabinet

Executive Departments of the Philippines

The Executive departments of the Philippines is the largest component of the national executive branch of the government of the Philippines. There are a total of nineteen executive departments. The departments comprise the largest part of the country's bureaucracy...

, service attachés of other government agencies assigned to Philippine diplomatic posts abroad and Philippine delegates to international and regional organizations. It is the first of two passports issued to the President of the Philippines

President of the Philippines

The President of the Philippines is the head of state and head of government of the Philippines. The president leads the executive branch of the Philippine government and is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines...

and the Presidential family. This passport has a dark blue cover and extends to the bearer the privilege of diplomatic immunity

Diplomatic immunity

Diplomatic immunity is a form of legal immunity and a policy held between governments that ensures that diplomats are given safe passage and are considered not susceptible to lawsuit or prosecution under the host country's laws...

Official (red)

An official passport is issued to members of the Philippine government for use on official business, as well as employees of Philippine diplomatic posts abroad who are not members of the diplomatic service. It is the second of two passports issued to the President and the Presidential family. As such, this passport does not extend the privilege of diplomatic immunity. Government officials are prohibited from using official passports for non-official business, and as such also have regular passports. This passport has a red cover.

Seaman's Identification Record Book (light blue)

The Seaman's Identification Record Book (SIRB) is issued to Filipinos who work as crewmembers on foreign-registered ships, as well as Philippine-registered ships with a weight over 35 gross tons. As this is issued by the MARINA and not the DFA, this type is unavailable outside the Philippines. There are special requirements for this type of passport, including certification by the Professional Regulation Commission

Professional Regulation Commission

The Professional Regulation Commission , otherwise known as the PRC, is a three-man commission attached to the office of the President of the Republic of the Philippines. Its mandate is to regulate and supervise the practice of the professionals who constitute the highly skilled manpower of the...

(PRC) and other agencies. This passport has a light blue cover.

Physical appearance

The latest Philippine passports have a maroon cover with the national coat-of-arms

Coat of arms of the Philippines

The Coat of Arms of the Philippines features the eight-rayed sun of the Philippines with each ray representing the eight provinces which were placed under martial law by Governor-General Ramón Blanco during the Philippine Revolution, and the three five-pointed stars representing the three primary...

emblazoned in the centre. The cover has the Filipino

Filipino language

words "PILIPINAS" above the arms and "PASAPORTE" under.

Passports issued during the latter years of the Fourth Republic had the order reversed (strikingly similar to the United States passport

United States passport

United States passports are passports issued to citizens and non-citizen nationals of the United States of America. They are issued exclusively by the U.S. Department of State. Besides issuing passports , also limited use passport cards are issued by the same organization subject to the same...

), with "PASAPORTE" on top and "REPUBLIKA NG PILIPINAS" on the bottom. All passports issued since this period have the cover in Filipino

Filipino language

save for the SIRB, which has the cover text in English.

A typical passport has 44 (previously 32 or 64) pages.

Languages

Philippine passports are bilingual

Languages of the Philippines

In the Philippines, there are between 120 and 175 languages, depending on the method of classification. Four languages no longer have any known speakers. Almost all the Philippine languages belong to the Austronesian language family...

, with both issued text and information page data in Filipino followed by English translations. Brown passports once had all the Filipino text written with diacritics; this was discontinued in the green and maroon passports.

Data page

Philippine passports have different styles of data pages. Old brown passports have both a data and physical description page, with the picture located on the description page rather than the data page; these are separated by the passport note. Green passports issued before 2004 have the data page on the inner cover followed by the passport note page. Passports issued after 2004 have the passport note and data pages reversed, with the passport note on the inner cover page.

The data page contains the following information:

Passport type (P)
Country code (PHL)
Passport number
- Passport numbers vary with each type of passport. Brown passports have a letter followed by six numbers, while green passports issued before 2005 have two letters followed by six numbers. Passports issued after 2005 (including machine-readable and biometric passports) have two letters followed by seven numbers.
Names
- A bearer's last name goes first, followed by the first names and middle name (mother's maiden last name)
Nationality (Filipino)
Date of birth (written in the European date format with months abbreviated)
Sex (M or F)
Date of issue
Date of expiry
- A Philippine passport is valid for five years from the date of issue. Passports issued from 1981 to 1986 were valid for two years and may be extended for another two years.
Issuing authority
- Valid issuing authorities for Philippine passports include the main office of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila
  Manila
  Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
  
  , branch offices of the DFA located in certain cities around the Philippines, and Philippine embassies and consulates.
Signature of bearer (for biometric passports)

With new maroon-covered passports, the passport data page ends with the Machine Readable Zone. This zone is absent in green-covered passports.

Philippine passports are known for having handwritten data entries rather than typed or computerised, although this is common only for passports issued in the Philippines. This practice is called "scripting" by the DFA. Passports issued by Philippine diplomatic missions typically have data entries typed rather than written. Machine-readable passports have their entries entered by computer.

Passport note

The passports contain a note from the issuing state that is addressed to the authorities of all other states, identifying the bearer as a citizen of that state and requesting that he or she be allowed to pass and be treated according to international norms. The note is first written in Filipino

Filipino language

followed by the English translation:

in Filipino:

"Ang Pamahalaan ng Republika ng Pilipinas ay humihiling sa lahat na kinauukulan na pahintulutan ang pinagkalooban nito, isang mamamayan ng Pilipinas, na makaraan nang malaya at walang sagabal, at kung kailangan, ay pag-ukulan siya ng lahat ng tulong at proteksyon ayon sa batas."

in English:

"The Government of the Republic of the Philippines requests all concerned authorities to permit the bearer, a citizen of the Philippines, to pass safely and freely and in case of need to give him/her all lawful aid and protection."

Signature field

A Philippine passport is invalid if the passport is not signed, and normally the bearer affixes his/her signature on the signature field, whose position has varied with various incarnations of Philippine passports. Persons too young to sign a passport may have a parent or legal guardian sign the passport on their behalf.

Brown passports originally contained the signature field below the data page at the passport's inner cover. When green passports began being issued in 1995, a field where the bearer must sign the passport appeared below the passport note.

Machine-readable passports originally had no signature field, a source of much controversy as Filipinos applying for foreign visas, whether for travel or employment, have either been requested to get a copy of their passport application form, or denied altogether. Newer versions of this passport eventually had the signature field at the back cover, below the important reminders for Philippine passport holders, while older versions have the field stamped on.

Biometric passports are the only Philippine passports which do not require the physical signature of the bearer, as an image of the bearer's signature is printed onto the passport data page.

Fees

The new biometric Philippine passport costs 950 pesos

Philippine peso

The peso is the currency of the Philippines. It is subdivided into 100 centavos . Before 1967, the language used on the banknotes and coins was English and so "peso" was the name used...

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

18) in the Philippines or $60 abroad. Overtime processing for new passports costs an additional 250 pesos. Persons who take advantage of overtime processing get their passports within ten working days, but is only available in the Philippines. Passports previously could amended for 100 pesos ($2) in the Philippines or $20 abroad, although machine-readable passports are no longer amendable.

Lost or stolen passports may be replaced for 700 pesos ($14) in the Philippines, $90 abroad.

The DFA also offers other channels for the public to apply for their passports. Aside from the traditional on site application process, there is also a DFA Express Passport Delivery hotline (02)737-1000 where an individual can call, inquire, and have his passport picked-up, processed and delivered to his doorstep. The third option is an online application process at www.passport.com.ph http://www.passport.com.ph, which has a similar door-to-door delivery feature. However, there are a handful of complaints regarding the door-to-door delivery feature the DFA offers, and the complainants often suggest to just pick it up personally or by an authorized 3rd-party. These include a delay of at least one week and non-notification of the passport recipient of the delay in the delivery of their passports. The DFA Multi-purpose Cooperative (DFAMPC) which is responsible for the delivery, is hard if not impossible to contact regarding delayed passports.

A Seaman's Identification Record Book may be obtained from MARINA for 550 pesos. An additional 220 pesos is added for expedited service. An SIRB may also be revalidated for 330 pesos, with an additional 120 pesos for expedited service.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Machine-readable passports

Biometric passport

Restrictions

Types of passports

Regular (green/maroon)

Diplomatic (blue)

Official (red)

Seaman's Identification Record Book (light blue)

Physical appearance

Languages

Data page

Passport note

Signature field

Fees

See also

External links