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Diplomatic passports issued to private individuals, DFA sources say


Former Philippine diplomats on Monday spoke out in support of then Foreign Affairs Chief and China critic Albert Del Rosario, who was deported by Hong Kong authorities last Friday despite using a diplomatic passport, saying the country’s former top diplomat did not violate any law.

At the same time, DFA insiders – senior diplomats and staff - told GMA News Online in separate interviews that there were “a lot” of diplomatic passports or so-called "blue passports" issued to private individuals and even to executives of powerful religious sects such as the Iglesia ni Cristo.

“It’s common knowledge within the DFA,” said one senior diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“Would the DFA also cancel the blue passports issued to INC executives?” asked another DFA official.

In 2018, President Rodrigo Duterte appointed Iglesia Ni Cristo executive minister Eduardo Manalo as his special envoy for overseas Filipinos concerns, which entitled him to a diplomatic passport.

However, a senior Filipino diplomat said Manalo had been using a diplomatic passport even before his appointment.

GMA News Online has reached out to the Iglesia ni Cristo but have yet to receive any comment as of posting time.

DFA sources lamented the practice of giving diplomatic passports to certain individuals, government allies, loyal friends and relatives as a political reward. 

“There are many blue passports issued to spouses, children, and other individuals not connected to the government,” the diplomat said.

Del Rosario’s use of a courtesy diplomatic passport in his trip to Hong Kong to attend a business meeting led to the agency’s decision to cancel the said travel document issued as privilege to its envoys and past secretaries.

Lauro Baja, former Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations and then DFA Undersecretary for Policy, called the DFA’s new directive on cancellation of diplomatic passports, which includes its former envoys, “unfortunate.”

“This issue was allowed to cover an apparent disregard of human rights of a former DFA Secretary who was kept in detention for six hours,” Baja said in an interview.

“The DFA is barking up the wrong tree. They should go after those granted diplomatic passports without any basis,” he said.

When sought for comment, the DFA has declined to answer queries on how many diplomatic passports were issued to non-government officials and diplomats.

In their Twitter exchange with Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., former ambassadors and DFA officials Rafael Seguis and Victoria Bataclan said Del Rosario did not misuse his diplomatic passport as such privilege of having one as a former DFA Chief is allowed by the law.

“His diplomatic passport was properly revalidated by DOPS of OCA and he did not intend to use it for unlawful means,” Seguis said, referring to the Diplomatic and Official Passport Section of the Office of Consular Affairs.

“I would have been proud to be in the league of Secretary Del Rosario, disallowed entry by imperialist Xi! Now, let me have the honor of tearing my ‘cedula’ and Cry the True Decalogue,” Bataclan said.

Locsin acknowledged that a 1993 DFA order provided for the issuance of diplomatic passports as a courtesy to former secretaries of foreign affairs, among other government officials.

But he explained he had to issue the directive “to spare others,” such as diplomats in active service, from incidents wherein their diplomatic passports would be dishonored by other governments.

He said he was “glad this has happened” as “it is a chance to clean up the list. Many issued to ‘friends.’”

Locsin said he would be issuing a circular on the recall and cancellation of so-called “blue passports.”

Del Rosario, who successfully steered the country’s arbitration case that invalidated China’s massive claims in the South China Sea in 2016, and former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales filed a complaint against Chinese President Xi Jinping of crimes against humanity for Beijing’s efforts to gain control of the resource-rich waters.

They said Xi was responsible for the destruction of marine environment in the South China Sea that resulted to loss of fisheries resources in the area due to China’s creation of artificial islands and militarization.

Both Del Rosario and Morales, on separate trips to Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of China, were held and questioned by immigration authorities. —NB, GMA News

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