By Jose Jemuel B. Dael
Philippine Information Agency
Butuan City - Caraganons need no longer have to travel to Davao, Cagayan de Oro or even to Manila just to apply for a passport as President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo inaugurated here Wednesday the 12th regional consular office of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Executive Director Ellen Jaucian of the consular office of the Department of Foreign Affairs toured the President to the office at the second floor of Cesia building along South Montilla Boulevard right after the ribbon-cutting ceremony that formally kicked off its operation.
Laurence Sumando, Acting Director of the regional consular office (RCO) of DFA in Butuan said that their 12th regional consular office is now accepting applicants for passport processing.
He added that with the opening of the DFA here, applicants from Caraga can save not less than 2000 pesos as compared to the amount they spend when they apply to Cagayan de Oro or Davao City.
He also said passport fees are the same in all RCOs with regular processing fees of 500 pesos and expedited processing of 750 pesos.
Earlier, Agusan del Norte 1st District Rep. Jose "Joboy" Aquino II said that he lobbied for the establishment of DFA in Butuan October last year and glad his x his efforts finally paid off.
He thanked President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and DFA Sec. Alberto Romulo for their support to this high impact project that will benefit thousands of people in the region.
He said when he pushed for this project, he put in mind all his constituents and all the people in Caraga and the service it could do to them.
In a related development, DFA Director of Passport Division Donna Gatmaitan said, ramdan na ang kaunlaran with the new machine readable passport (MRP) which they opened to the public since August last year.
She said MRP is a travel document containing data that can be read both by the naked eye and by a machine/passport reader which replaces hand-scripted passports.
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