The Philippine Passport Fee Could Rise to ₱1,500. The DFA Wants to Wait Until 2028.

A Senate budget hearing put a proposed ₱550 increase on the table. Nothing is approved, and the Department of Foreign Affairs wants it held until the next-generation passport arrives.

A Philippine passport costs ₱950 with regular processing and ₱1,200 with expedited, and those prices have held for more than a decade. They came up for review on September 18 at the Senate hearing on the Department of Foreign Affairs’ (DFA) proposed ₱35.17-billion budget for 2027, where Senate Finance Committee chair JV Ejercito disclosed that the agency that prints the booklets wants to charge more.

What’s Being Proposed

The request comes from APO Production Unit, the government-owned printer that produces Philippine passports. It wants to raise the regular fee to ₱1,500, a ₱550 increase, to keep its operations financially sustainable. Ejercito told senators that APO had warned it might otherwise be forced to stop production, which could mean a passport shortage as early as 2027. The proposal also includes a discounted ₱1,200 rate for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and senior citizens. That discount, like the increase itself, is still only a proposal.

Why the DFA Wants to Wait

Foreign Affairs Secretary Maria Theresa Lazaro called the request reasonable, pointing out that passport validity has doubled from five years to ten since the fee last moved. The DFA has still asked APO to defer the increase until mid-2028, when the government plans to roll out a next-generation passport with updated security features, including contactless chip technology. Lazaro cited the Philippine Passport Act, which she said bars raising a passport’s price again within three years, so an increase in January 2027, as APO requested, could complicate pricing for the new booklet. She also said the DFA would need a communications plan before any change took effect.

Brown Philippine Passport — The Philippine passport’s ₱950 regular fee hasn’t changed in more than a decade.

The Pushback

Senator Christopher “Bong” Go opposed the increase outright, arguing that it would land on Filipinos already absorbing higher living costs, OFWs in particular. He said a government subsidy should be studied if the printer needs the money. Ejercito said the Senate could look at a subsidy while working within the budget’s limits.

What the Booklet Buys

In the Henley Passport Index’s July 2026 edition, the Philippine passport ranks seventy-second in the world, with visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 65 destinations. For many Filipino travelers, a trip abroad still starts with a morning at a visa application center like the ones inside Parqal, well before anyone reaches an airport gate.

What It Means If You’re Renewing

For now, nothing has changed. If the DFA’s timeline holds, any increase would arrive with the next-generation passport in mid-2028. If APO’s request wins out, it could come as early as January 2027. Anyone whose passport expires in 2027 has little reason to put off renewing.