2nd DFA satellite office now at SM City Davao

By Vicky Berdina M. de Guzman

The Department of Foreign Affairs opened last Friday its second satellite office here at SM City Davao.
This new regional consular office will render consular services to residents of Davao City and of nearby cities and provinces.
According to SM Supermalls president, Annie S. Garcia, SM already has 45 malls in cities around the country and management is pleased to have the DFA’s a satellite office in SM City Davao.
She added that SM has an average of 3.5 million customers visiting their malls daily which have also become  they have also become one-stop-shops for Filipinos where they can pay bills, renew their driver’s license and enjoy entertainment.
The first DFA satellite office in the country was opened at SM Megamall and within this year, SM will open satellites offices at SM Manila and SM Baguio.
Garcia said, “because of the private public partnership between SM Prime Holding and DFA, we are proud to help the government save P1.06 billion over a period of 10 years and help ease the burden of facilitating the consular requirements of over 10,000 people that visit the main passport facility on Macapagal Avenue daily.”
The 3,400 square meter area rented by the DFA is  a “rent free” venue.
The officer in charge of the Regional Consular Office Davao, Flora Belinda Bacosa, said there are 28 staff in the new office whose operating hours start from 10:00 in the morning up to 7:00 in the evening.
DFA is also positive that through the new office, they will be able to cater to more applicants and extend better services.
According to Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Jaime Victor B. Ledda, 216,734 passports were issued in Mindanao last year, 68,414 of them from Davao.
He also said Davao City issuances hit 75 percent of their output and they are hopeful that they will exceed last year’s total.
DFA Undersecretary Rafael Seguis said the new DFA office will serve the public and enhance consular services to the people and that by 2013, authentication of documents will be available to the public.

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