What I've heard suggested is that it's a question of resources at the Manila office. I've heard that it's completely packed and they have no room for anybody else to process the cases. I can't say I've been there personally to see if that's true, but otherwise it would suggest to me that the resources haven't been allocated to take care of either that backlog or slow processing procedure.
On May 26th, 2009. See this statement in context.