GETTING YOUR OWN PASSPORT

REGARDING HENRY
By Henrylito D. Tacio

Of course, all of us are very familiar with identification card (ID). Before entering a school, you have to wear an ID. If someone sends you cash from abroad, you have to show two valid IDs to get the money which belongs to you in the first place. Even, when applying for a loan or something, one of the prerequisites is your ID.



Now, if you're traveling abroad, ID is not the document that you present to enter another country. It's the passport, a travel document issued by a national government that identifies the bearer as a national of the issuing country and requests that the bearer be permitted to enter and pass through other countries.



Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia notes: "Passports are usually required for international travel, though this is not always the case; they serve only as an internationally-recognized means of identification of the traveler. This requirement may be waived (the terminology may vary in different countries) in individual cases or for classes of travelers."



Perhaps, one of the earliest references to passports is found in the Bible. Nehemiah, an official serving King Artaxerxes of ancient Persia, asked permission to travel to Judah. The King agreed and gave Nehemiah a letter "to the governors beyond the river" requesting safe passage for him as he traveled through their lands (Nehemiah 2:7-9).



The term 'passport' most probably originates not from sea ports, but from medieval documents required to pass through the gate ("porte") of city walls. In medieval Europe, such documents could be issued to any traveler by local authorities and generally contained a list of towns and cities through which the holder was permitted to pass. This system continued in France, for example, until the 1860s.



During that time, passports were often not required for travel to seaports, which were considered open trading points, but were required to travel from them to inland cities. Early passports often, but not always, contained a physical description of the holder, with photographs being added only in the early decades of the 20th century, as photography became cheaper and more widespread.



Among Filipinos, a Philippine passport is issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Philippine diplomatic missions abroad. "The (Philippine) passport is a popular target for counterfeiters, due largely to the relatively liberal visa requirements accorded to Philippine travelers to destinations such as Brunei, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and other APEC and ASEAN countries," notes Wikipedia. APEC stands for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation while ASEAN means Association of Southeast Asian Nations.



Due to the counterfeiting problem, the DFA issued machine-readable passports starting September 17, 2007 with a maroon colored cover. The green colored cover non-electronic passport is still acceptable until they expire.



If you are from Manila and you have to get a passport, here's a word of caution from my journalist friend, Alan C. Robles: "You see, in this country, the method of getting a passport quickly and painlessly is a closely guarded national secret, restricted to only a few people. The instant anybody stumbles on the secret, his documents are immediately confiscated and he's ordered to fall in line at Counter 45A, without being told that Counter 45A doesn't exist."



In a satirical article he wrote for "Filipino Globe" entitled, 'Quest for Identity,' Robles wrote: "Last year, I went to get a new passport and I'm pleased to report the DFA has worked hard to keep its traditional standards of passport processing intact. Old-timers who go there will see a new generation of confused-looking people milling around, not knowing what to do next, while DFA officials periodically tell them that they don't have the right documents (the DFA's first rule of passport processing: 'You never have the right documents').



Here's the rest of story: "I was fortunate enough to have a DFA friend put me on a 'courtesy list,' which meant it only took me four and a half hours to convince them to accept my application. The highlight was stepping into a room adjoining the cafeteria, where I had to wait for my number to be called. There was one man interviewing applicant number 108. I looked at my number: 192. The six rows of benches were full of people, many of whom were staring into space; some didn't seem to be alive. I think some had spiders spinning cobwebs on their faces, but I couldn't be sure.



"The official was relieved by a young woman who decided to call applicants by simply holding up their forms. If people seated at the back didn't have the foresight to bring binoculars so they could spot their papers, the woman snorted exasperatedly and held up the next applicant's form. Perhaps, she didn't want to call out the number because she didn't want to disturb the sleeping people. This led to applicants crowding the front row, leaning forward and squinting anxiously.



"Anyway, after surviving that step (during which I was, of course, told I didn't have the right documents) I was finally cleared to pay the fee, which only involved going down an unmarked corridor, turning right, ducking into an emergency stairway, going down one level, turning right and then finding your way to the payment area. Luckily the years I'd spent going through Dungeons and Dragons mazes in college helped.



"With the new biometric passports coming into use, you can be sure that, even now, DFA officials are busy thinking of more ways to fine-tune the process ('I know what! Let's make them do the tinikling! No, the pandango sa ilaw!')."



By the way, passports usually contain the holder's photograph, signature, date of birth, nationality, and sometimes other means of individual identification. According to Wikipedia, many countries these days are in the process of developing biometric properties for their passports in order to further confirm that the person presenting the passport is the legitimate holder.