Passport Renewal: No Need for Certificate of Live Birth

Malacañang takes the alleged loss of passport data seriously and slammed the movement requiring birth certificates in the process of passport renewal.

According to Salvador Panelo, Presidential Spokesman and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel, the process of requiring people to submit a certificate of live birth when applying for passport renewal is quite cumbersome. It is also a form of red tape which is definitely not tolerated by the administration. Aside from that, Panelo mentioned that submitting an old or current passport for the renewal process should be enough.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman said that they are not taking the matter of data loss lightly.  It is a serious and grave matter, he said.





In the meantime, the government is yet to confirm whether the passport data has been taken by a private firm or not. They are not yet sure if the data is gone because it might still be there.

Panelo requested all the documents which may be related to the data loss claims. He asked different agencies which include APO Production Unit Inc. and the Department of Foreign Affairs regarding these documents.

Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. was the one who revealed the alleged loss of passport data. He mentioned in a tweet that a private firm, a contractor tapped by the DFA “made off” with the passport data of Filipinos. This is why Locsin asks Filipinos to present their birth certificates when renewing their passports.


Locsin also claimed that the data loss started during the Arroyo administration. It got worse during the Benigno Aquino III administration. However, Locsin did not reveal who the contractor is or to what extent this data loss issue will bring to passport holders.
The National Privacy Commission will still investigate this issue.