Private printer 'illegally' printing e-passports —ex-DFA Sec. Yasay

Former Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. has revealed that a private printing company has been illegally producing electronic passports for the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) even as it was supposedly forbidden to do so and the project was being implemented by another firm.

Yasay made the remark on Saturday as he tried to shed light into the incident involving a passport maker previously tapped by the DFA running off with passport data and other documents entrusted to it for processing.

In a Facebook post, Yasay lamented how the DFA is requiring passport holders to bring their birth certificates and other supporting documents in renewing their passport.

"Why make the public suffer some more for the misfeasance or wrong of certain government officials?" he said.

The former foreign affairs secretary, however, believes that the recent incident was "most likely only part of the whole true story."

Yasay narrated that on August 1, 2006, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and DFA entered into an agreement on the procurement and centralized production of machine-readable electronic passports (MREPs) in compliance with the standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

The BSP, through bidding, awarded the main part of the project to the Francois-Charles Oberthur Fiduciare (FCOF), a French firm, through its office in Makati.

But while FCOF was producing the passports under ICAO standards, Yasay said the DFA on October 5, 2015 awarded the production of a new E-Passport system to APO Production Unit Inc. (APUI), provided that it would not subcontract it to a private company.

"In stark violation of this condition, APUI engaged the services of the United Graphic Expression Corporation (UGEC) for the production of the new E-passports," Yasay said.

At that time, the DFA was being headed by former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario.

On February 7, 2017, while he was foreign affairs secretary, Yasay said President Rodrigo Duterte directed him and Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez to discuss with the BSP to return to the central bank the printing of MREPs, but the latter "refused to budge from its previous stand."

Chief Presidential Legal Adviser Salvador Panelo also said that assigning the printing of passports to UGEC was "illegal," and demanded that the rights over all personal data, source code, data center and other information related to e-passport printing be reconveyed to DFA, Yasay said.

"Upon information and belief, it appears that UGEC which continues the illegal production of the E-passports has not complied," he added.

APUI chairman Michael Dalumpines already addressed the issue on subcontracting UGEC in March last year, saying there was no anomaly in the printing of passports.

In a report by the Philippine Information Agency, Dalumpines said APUI's joint venture agreement with UGEC is in adherence to the guidelines set by the National Economic and Development Authority, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Budget Management, Governance Commission for GOCCs, and the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel.

At the same time, Dalumpines said APUI takes care of the management and printing of passports, while the UGEC only handles the financing and provides the machinery and supplies.

Yasay said he shared his knowledge on the incident to help incumbent Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. to get to the bottom of the issue and ensure the past mistakes of some DFA officials in conspiracy with heads of other government agencies will not be repeated.

"Under the present scheme of things, the DFA cannot hold UGEC accountable for any breach or screw up in the printing of the E-passport," Yasay said.

"Indeed this matter should be thoroughly investigated without any political bias or cover-up so that the whole truth, which the public deserves will be exposed," he added.

Locsin, for his part, assured the public that the passport data loss that hit the DFA would would not happen again.

"I just want it fixed and not repeated," Locsin said on Twitter.

GMA News Online was trying to contact the UGEC, Del Rosario, and BSP for comment as of posting time. —Erwin Colcol/KG/LBG, GMA News