DFA seeks to hasten phaseout of TOPS consular offices, boost...

SENATORS have promised funding support to the Department of Foreign Affairs' program to boost its consular offices nationwide and completely phase out the pandemic-era "TOPS" offsite passport centers, that they suspect were used to provide passports to non-Filipinos who were later involved in crimes. Sen. Loren Legarda, presiding at the Senate Finance Sub-committee hearing on DFA's P27.4-billion 2025 budget, advised Secretary Enrique Manalo to immediately work on the paperwork to justify additional funding to set up DFA organic consular offices to fully replace its Temporary Offsite Passport Services that were set up during the Covid-19 pandemic. Asked by Legarda how much it would cost in the 2025 budget to open new consular units to replace TOPS, Manalo said it was about P98.4 million Legarda openly aired her suspicion that the TOPS may have been the venue through which some non-Fili...