THE Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) admitted during budget deliberations on Tuesday an estimated backlog of 3 to 4 million passport renewals.

DFA Undersecretary Brigido Dulay told the House of Representatives's Committee on Appropriations that the pandemic was the cause of the delays.

'We admit, Your Honor, that there is a current backlog of around 3 to 4 million for passport renewals. And this...really stems from the pandemic which has limited our ability to provide the usual, the regular consular services and passport renewals to a lot of Filipinos', Dulay said.

The DFA official said that in the past few months, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. has ordered them to put up additional temporary off-site passport services sites.

'This is a non-GAA endeavor, project. Special po ito sapagkat kailangan lang po kaming magbukas ng additional na passporting sites para po matugunan nga po iyong mga backlog dahil na rin po sa pandemya. At tinataya po namin na kakailanganin po natin...ng additional 10 to around 20 temporary off-site passport services [sites] just to try and minimize the backlog po', Dulay said.

(This is a non-GAA endeavor, project. This is special because we just need to open additional passporting sites to address the backlog because of the pandemic. And we estimate that we need additional 10 to around 20 temporary off-site passport services [sites] just to try and minimize the backlog.)

GAA stands for General Appropriations Act.