HOSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

RECEIVED
0.3 AUG 2016

Bae GN

Republic of thePhilippines OTE:
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES —1IW
Quezon City, Metro Manila

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS:

RECISTRATION UN!
First Regular Session a; Cn Ga
| Bil s

AND INDEX SERVICE

5 9
House Bill No._243@

Introduced by: Representative Henry S. Oaminal

EXPLANATORY NOTE

Section 6 of the 1987 Constitution explicitly guarantees the right of the
people to travel except upon the lawful order of the court or in the interest of
national security, public safety or public health

In pursuance of the above Constitutional mandate, Republic Act No. 8239,
otherwise known as the “Philippine Passport Act of 1996” was enacted into law to
enable the people to go anywhere in the world wherever he or she desires to go
However, the validity of passports allowed under Section 10 of this law, is good
only five (5) years

Considering the tedious process and also the cost in obtaining a passport,
a five-year passport validity is too short that it gives rise to numerous problems
like having to fall in a very long queue, having longer appointment date and soon
This situation opens window of opportunity to fixers to facilitate the transaction in
exchange for a much higher cost than the regular processing to the detriment of
the poor people.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte during his First State of the Nation Address
mentioned the difficulties being experienced by our countrymen like having to
spend more time in a long queue in securing documents in the government like
licenses, passports, etc that he ordered to extend their validity to a longer period
to avoid experiencing such unnecessary hardship.

This bill, therefore, is a concrete gesture to President Duterte’s public
directive to certain government agencies like the Department of Foreign Affairs
(DFA) to extend the validity of P} ssports from five (5) to ten (10) years.

In view of the foregoing, the passage of this amestly sought

Representakive
Second District, Misamis Occidental


Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City, Metro Manila

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

2452

House Bill No.

Introduced by: Representative Henry S. Oaminal

AN ACT
EXTENDING THE VALIDITY OF PHILIPPINE PASSPORTS FROM FIVE
(5) TO TEN (10) YEARS, AMENDING FOR THE PURPOSE SECTION 10
OF REPUBLIC ACT NO. 8239, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE
“PHILIPPINE PASSPORT ACT OF 1996”

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the Philippines in Congress assembled.

SECTION 1. Section 10 of Republic Act No. 8239, otherwise known as the
Philippine Passport Act of 1996, is hereby amended to read as follows:

“SEC. 10.Validity. — Regular passports issued under
this Act shall be valid for a period of [five (5)} TEN (10)
years: Provided, however, That the issuing authority may
limit the period of validity to less than [five (5)] TEN (10)
years; whenever in the national economic interest or
political stability of the country such restriction is
necessary: Provided, finally, That a new passport may be
issued to replace one which validity has expired, the old
passport being returned to the holder after cancellation.”

SEC. 2. All laws, decrees, executive orders, rules and regulations which are
inconsistent with this Act are hereby amended, repealed or modified accordingly

SEC. 3. This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication in the
Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation

Approved,