Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. announced that passports issued in 2009 won’t need to present birth certificates upon renewal. In a tweet, Locsin stated that presenting the old passport is enough for the renewal process.
This became a concern after he came out with a statement on Twitter that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) needed to reinforce its database for passports issued before 2010 due to a security breach when a former passport maker “took all the data when contract terminated” (via ABS-CBN). The alleged incident pushed an investigation to be conducted by the National Privacy Commission.
Locsin tweeted a week later that there was no runaway data with reassurance from the APO that the data is still intact. He adds that the APO agrees that the old passports are better evidence for renewals rather than birth certificates.
Requirements for Passport Renewals and Applications
The DFA Department Order No. 03-2019 signed on January 15 states that although birth certificates are no longer required for regular renewals, they are still required for new applicants, renewals for lost and mutilated passports, renewals that require changes in the entries such as marital status, dual citizenships, or changes in the applicant’s surname, and applicants under the Department’s Watchlist.
Regular passport renewals only require a duly accomplished application form and the old passport. Brown, Green, and Machine Readable Maroon passports issued in 2007 will be treated as new applications. Click here to read more about how to apply for a Philippine Passport.