Ople cites consular office in Clark

Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople inaugurated yesterday what he termed "a world-class regional consular office in Clark, which will serve the passport needs of the six provinces and seven cities of Central Luzon, the No. 1 source of overseas contract workers in the country.

At the same time Ople announced the DFA’s machine readable passport and visa Mrp/v system could be completed and inaugurated by June 2, 2003. He said the Mrp/v will eliminate all passport frauds and assure the integrity and credibility of Philippine travel documents for Filipino citizens that will earn the respect of the whole world.

The Secretary said the Regional Consular office at Clark remains No. 1 in terms of passport production and revenue generation among the DFA’s 10 regional offices.

For the first three quarters of this year, the office issued a total of 71,904 passports and generated P42.8 million in revenues.