Philippines to implement eVisas for foreigners starting 3rd quarter this year

[Lee]

Quote

 

The Philippines will be implementing electronic visas for foreign visitors starting in the third quarter of this year to make visa application and processing faster and more efficient, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Wednesday.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Jesus Domingo said the country’s e-Visa system will allow foreign nationals to apply for appropriate Philippine visas remotely through personal computers, laptops, and mobile devices.

"This would make the visa application process faster, more efficient, and more convenient for foreign nationals who wish to visit the Philippines for touristic and business purposes," Domingo said in a press conference.

An e-Visa prototype was presented by Office of Consular Affairs Assistant Secretary Henry Bensurto, Jr., during a meeting at the Home Office in Manila of Philippine heads of diplomatic posts and consulates in China this week.

he meeting was jointly chaired by Domingo, who heads the DFA Office of Civilian Security and Consular Affairs, and Bensurto.

It was attended by Philippine Ambassador to China Jaime Florcruz, Consul General Dinno Oblena (Philippine Embassy in Beijing), Consul General Josel Ignacio (Philippine Consulate General in Shanghai), Consul General Marshall Louis Alferez (Philippine Consulate General in Guangzhou), Consul General Flerida Anne Camille Mayo (Philippine Consulate General in Chongqing), Consul General Porfirio Mayo, Jr. (Philippine Consulate General in Macau), Consul General Raly Tejada (Philippine Consulate General in Hongkong), and Consul General Maria Antonina Mendoza-Oblena (Philippine Consulate General in Xiamen).

Currently being developed by the DFA in partnership with the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the Philippine e-Visa aims "to make use of technology to facilitate the entry of legitimate visitors to the country."

It’s scheduled to be launched within the third quarter of 2023, Domingo said.

"The launch of the e-Visas is part of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s policy to significantly enhance and transform the Philippine tourism industry with the view of increasing tourist arrivals in 2023 and beyond." 

Domingo and Bensurto said visitors from China, one of the top sources of foreign tourists in the country, would greatly benefit from the new e-Visa system.

Currently, Chinese tourists need to apply for a visa in person at the embassy or consulate across China.

Since the resumption of outbound tourism for Chinese nationals in February, Philippine diplomatic posts in China "have been operating beyond their full capacity to process and issue visas to Chinese nationals in accordance with existing Philippine visa regulations and policies," Domingo said.

The Department of Tourism is eyeing 1.7 million Chinese tourist arrivals this year.

According to Domingo, the heads of posts in China emphasized that there is no backlog in their consular work of processing visa applications of Chinese nationals, both for Chinese tour groups and Chinese individuals.

Domingo and Bensurto hope that with the new e-Visa system, more Chinese tourists and businessmen will visit the country.

They said that the Philippine government is imposing additional safety nets to ensure that Chinese nationals entering the Philippines through tourist visas are legitimate tourists or business travelers amid reports that they work illegally in Chinese offshore gaming offices in the country.

"It is in our interest to generate income through more tourist arrivals into the country as part of our economic policy, but on the other hand, we are aware that we also have to be mindful of the possible security implications," Bensurto said.

 

 

Philippines to implement eVisas for foreigners starting 3rd quarter this year (msn.com)

[Joe LP]

Wonder if they ever make this an option for extensions.

[Mike J]

Hopefully the company responsible for the E-visa system is not the same company that produced the fiasco for LTO at a cost of 3.15 billion peso.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1648738/lto-must-explain-p3-15-b-it-system-blamed-for-delays

Spoiler

MANILA, Philippines — The Land Transportation Office (LTO) must be made to explain why it paid P3.15 billion in full to four companies for its new online licensing and registration portal despite a number of defects that generated “massive disruptions” in the system, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said on Wednesday.

The senator, citing the red flags noted by the Commission on Audit (COA) in its 2021 audit report on the LTO, called on the Senate blue ribbon committee to look into the allegedly questionable payments made by the transport agency to the contractors for the outsourced information technology (IT) project.

The payment of such a huge sum was made to Dermalog Identification System, Holy Family Printing Corp., Microgenesis and Verzontal Builders despite the “incomplete turnover of deliverables,” according to Pimentel in Senate Resolution No. 147.

This was “in clear violation of the procurement and auditing rules and to the disadvantage and detriment of our government and country as a whole,” Pimentel added.

“Unsurprisingly, there have been complaints of slow processing of documents in getting a driver’s license and its renewal, as well as registration of vehicles, which have been attributed to its new IT system,” the senator said.

He said the new LTO chief, Assistant Secretary Teofilo Guadiz III, who was appointed in late July, himself acknowledged that glitches in the land transportation management system (LTMS) were causing “massive delays in LTO transactions nationwide.”

5 days processing
Driver’s license application and motor vehicle registration now take five days, compared to the usual turnaround time of only two hours, Pimentel said.

“It is thus imperative for the LTO to explain why full payment has been made to the vendor of this IT system which has unresolved issues and are clearly not working as intended and is causing massive disruptions to the LTO processes,” he said.

In a statement on Wednesday, the LTO said it would “comply with whatever requirements the COA may put forth in order to shed light on details regarding the project” and welcomed the chance to explain the “supposed undue payments” in a Senate inquiry.

“We would be more than willing to answer truthfully all questions regarding the matter,” Guadiz said.

“The LTO is one with any person or institution in finding out the truth in the spirit of transparency and accountability. What we can also assure is that the LTO will remain cautious in entering into contracts and efficient in the delivery of service to the motoring public,” he added.

Guadiz’s statement did not address specific questions in the COA report and Pimentel’s resolution.

In 2018, the Department of Transportation, the LTO’s parent agency, awarded the multibillion-peso IT project to the joint venture of Dermalog, Holy Family, Microgenesis and Verzontal Builders.

70 open issues
Under the contract, the joint venture was supposed to develop “core applications” for the LTMS, including the driver’s licensing system and the motor vehicle inspection and registration system.

But Pimentel noted that based on the COA report, the contractors were paid for the applications in full despite their failure to accommodate certain LTO transactions, among “70 open issues still to be delivered by the vendor.”

The senator said this was based on a review of the quality assurance reports dated Dec. 9, 2021, on the functionality and regression testing performed on each core application in LTMS version 2.3.0.

The LTO also reported 25 existing issues on the core applications that remained unresolved as of December 2021, purportedly disrupting the operations of various LTO licensing sites.

Services not rendered
Under the country’s procurement laws, according to Pimentel, no payment is supposed to be made for services not yet rendered or for supplies and materials not yet delivered under any contract with the government.

“[I]t is a basic rule in procurement contracts that payment based on progress billing is allowed provided that the goods have been delivered or installed in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract, and the same was duly inspected and accepted by the procuring entity as evidenced by a certification to that effect,” the senator said.

 

[Old55]

37 minutes ago, Mike J said:

Hopefully the company responsible for the E-visa system is not the same company that produced the fiasco for LTO at a cost of 3.15 billion peso.

  Reveal hidden contents

MANILA, Philippines — The Land Transportation Office (LTO) must be made to explain why it paid P3.15 billion in full to four companies for its new online licensing and registration portal despite a number of defects that generated “massive disruptions” in the system, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said on Wednesday.

The senator, citing the red flags noted by the Commission on Audit (COA) in its 2021 audit report on the LTO, called on the Senate blue ribbon committee to look into the allegedly questionable payments made by the transport agency to the contractors for the outsourced information technology (IT) project.

The payment of such a huge sum was made to Dermalog Identification System, Holy Family Printing Corp., Microgenesis and Verzontal Builders despite the “incomplete turnover of deliverables,” according to Pimentel in Senate Resolution No. 147.

This was “in clear violation of the procurement and auditing rules and to the disadvantage and detriment of our government and country as a whole,” Pimentel added.

“Unsurprisingly, there have been complaints of slow processing of documents in getting a driver’s license and its renewal, as well as registration of vehicles, which have been attributed to its new IT system,” the senator said.

He said the new LTO chief, Assistant Secretary Teofilo Guadiz III, who was appointed in late July, himself acknowledged that glitches in the land transportation management system (LTMS) were causing “massive delays in LTO transactions nationwide.”

5 days processing
Driver’s license application and motor vehicle registration now take five days, compared to the usual turnaround time of only two hours, Pimentel said.

“It is thus imperative for the LTO to explain why full payment has been made to the vendor of this IT system which has unresolved issues and are clearly not working as intended and is causing massive disruptions to the LTO processes,” he said.

In a statement on Wednesday, the LTO said it would “comply with whatever requirements the COA may put forth in order to shed light on details regarding the project” and welcomed the chance to explain the “supposed undue payments” in a Senate inquiry.

“We would be more than willing to answer truthfully all questions regarding the matter,” Guadiz said.

“The LTO is one with any person or institution in finding out the truth in the spirit of transparency and accountability. What we can also assure is that the LTO will remain cautious in entering into contracts and efficient in the delivery of service to the motoring public,” he added.

Guadiz’s statement did not address specific questions in the COA report and Pimentel’s resolution.

In 2018, the Department of Transportation, the LTO’s parent agency, awarded the multibillion-peso IT project to the joint venture of Dermalog, Holy Family, Microgenesis and Verzontal Builders.

70 open issues
Under the contract, the joint venture was supposed to develop “core applications” for the LTMS, including the driver’s licensing system and the motor vehicle inspection and registration system.

But Pimentel noted that based on the COA report, the contractors were paid for the applications in full despite their failure to accommodate certain LTO transactions, among “70 open issues still to be delivered by the vendor.”

The senator said this was based on a review of the quality assurance reports dated Dec. 9, 2021, on the functionality and regression testing performed on each core application in LTMS version 2.3.0.

The LTO also reported 25 existing issues on the core applications that remained unresolved as of December 2021, purportedly disrupting the operations of various LTO licensing sites.

Services not rendered
Under the country’s procurement laws, according to Pimentel, no payment is supposed to be made for services not yet rendered or for supplies and materials not yet delivered under any contract with the government.

“[I]t is a basic rule in procurement contracts that payment based on progress billing is allowed provided that the goods have been delivered or installed in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract, and the same was duly inspected and accepted by the procuring entity as evidenced by a certification to that effect,” the senator said.

Mike, don't you think the E-Visa people would have learned from that? 

What could possibly go wrong? 

[Lee]

Not so fast on the E-Visa

Nancy Binay asks DFA to require personal appearances for select e-visa applications

Quote

 

Senator Nancy Binay on Tuesday called on the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to require personal appearances at consular offices as a “non-negotiable requirement” for certain categories applying for a Philippine e-visa.

While the chairperson of the Senate Tourism Committee welcomed the pilot implementation of the country’s first-ever electronic visa on August 24, Binay urged the DFA to provide better security policies “to avoid being circumvented by non-technical loopholes and to lessen the probability of organized syndicates exploiting tour groups and junkets.”

"We welcome the implementation of e-visas not only to positively boost tourism, but also as our commitment to facilitate ease of travel. In the same vein, we urge the DFA and NICA to refine national security policies to deter undesirable travelers from extra-legally bypassing immigration laws,” Binay, who is also a member of the Senate Committees on National Defense and Foreign Relations, said.

“We all know that many foreigners are going to the Philippines for other purposes. We should review the system and exemptions further to avoid any misuse and abuse by some foreign nationals,” she said in mixed English and Filipino.

Binay pointed out that every visa decision has an implication on national security, adding that vetting on transnational organized crime-related grounds and extensive security screening should be the prime considerations in approving visa applications.

“Certain parameters on security should be in place and apply a multi-layered safety plug plus a face-to-face interview to a narrow category of travelers para talagang salang-sala ang mga pumapasok sa bansa (so that we can make sure that all persons who enter the country are properly evaluated)," Binay said.

“Gaano ba kasigurado tayo na ang nabibigyan natin ng e-visa eh talagang mga lehitimong turista (How sure are we that every person issuef an e-visa is a legitimate tourist)? As a matter of national interest, I share the DFA's position to require face-to-face interviews with tourist visa applicants whose profiles fall in marked categories," Binay said.

The lawmaker also said the Bureau of Immigration should have a system to check on foreign nationals overstaying in the country.

Considering that the Philippines is the only ASEAN country with a Tier 1 status under the US State Department's annual human trafficking report, Binay said the DFA cannot turn a blind eye on reports of Chinese workers trafficked to the country.

"Lalo pa ngayong unti-unti nang nanunumbalik ang turismo--we also cannot ignore that China is a big market. I share the opinion that we have to take advantage of the global 'revenge tourism' phenomenon, but targeting visitor quotas need not dilute national security interests,” she said.

“Safety nets in homeland security should be in place. Visa applicants must demonstrate their eligibility for an e-visa be it for tourism, business or emergency purposes. The policy must apply to all foreign nationals, and we always have to be on the side of caution and prudence,” she concluded.

The Philippine e-Visa system will allow foreign nationals entering the country to apply for temporary visitor passes online through their electronic device.

 

Nancy Binay asks DFA to require personal appearances for select e-visa applications (msn.com)

[Mike J]

11 hours ago, Lee said:

Not so fast on the E-Visa

Nancy Binay asks DFA to require personal appearances for select e-visa applications

Nancy Binay asks DFA to require personal appearances for select e-visa applications (msn.com)

She appears to think the Chinese would take advantage of the e-visa system.  I think her concerns are legitimate, especially with POGO.

<snip>Considering that the Philippines is the only ASEAN country with a Tier 1 status under the US State Department's annual human trafficking report, Binay said the DFA cannot turn a blind eye on reports of Chinese workers trafficked to the country.<end snip>

[BrettGC]

1 hour ago, Mike J said:

She appears to think the Chinese would take advantage of the e-visa system.  I think her concerns are legitimate, especially with POGO.

<snip>Considering that the Philippines is the only ASEAN country with a Tier 1 status under the US State Department's annual human trafficking report, Binay said the DFA cannot turn a blind eye on reports of Chinese workers trafficked to the country.<end snip>

It's not that hard to exclude certain nationalities from the e-visa, countries that have had it for years do exactly that with no issues.  

[Lee]

In related news.

Beware of Fake Philippine E-Visa Websites, DFA Warns

Quote

 

Active websites that claim to facilitate Philippine electronic visas (e-Visa) ahead of its official launch are fake, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Monday, August 7. 

It warned against the fake Philippine e-Visas "containing misinformation on the e-Visa and other regulations" as the official soft launch for Chinese nationals will still be on August 24, it said without specifying which fake website it was referring to.

"The Department clarifies that information on the e-Visa will only be published through its official channels. As announced in its press briefing on 26 July 2023, the Philippine e-Visa system will be soft-launched in Philippine Foreign Service Posts in China on 24 August 2023," DFA said in a statement.

In the meantime, the process for visa applications will proceed as normal in respective embassies.

 

Beware of Fake Philippine E-Visa Websites, DFA Warns (msn.com)