UPDATED : Validity of Passports Up To 10 Years? Duterte Administration Aims To Do So Before 2016 Ends

UPDATED :

MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte has signed into law a measure extending passport validity to 10 years from the current 5 years.

Duterte has signed Republic Act 10928, an act extending the passport validity and amending section 10 of Republic Act 8239 or the Passport Act of 1996.

RA 10928 says the passport law’s section now provides for a ten-year validity of passports.

Under section 10, individuals under 18 years old shall have a passport with a validity period of 5 years.

The law shall take effect 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette or in a national newspaper of general circulation.

First time passport applicants aim to lengthen the validity of passport so they won’t return to the Department of Foreign Affairs more often.

Luckily, the Duterte administration is already planning to lengthen the validity of passports into 10 years from the current 5 years. This will be implemented before 2016 ends.- ABS-CBN

But according to the Department of Foreign Affairs, there’s a law that needs to be corrected before actually extending the validity of passports. In return, applicants are obliged to pay higher fees for the passport processing.

In case the extension gets implemented, the current 44 pages in the passport will be made 60 pages to cater the future trips of the applicant.

Aside from the passport, it is expected that within the 6 months of Duterte Administration, the validity of Driver’s License will also get extended into 3 to 5 years, extended validity of NBI Clearance, and the cancellation of expiration on Birth Certificates issued by NSO.

According to the incoming budget secretary Dr. Benjamin Diokno, the short validity of passports and driver’s license and birth certificate will just cause a lot of trouble and expense.

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Source : ABS-CBN

Updated :