MANILA, Philippines - All transactions pertaining to the machine-readable passport (MRP) and electronic passport (ePassport) projects are legal and transparent, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.
The DFA issued the clarification following a paid advertisement in a major newspaper by groups alleging that the passport projects were tainted with corruption.
DFA spokesman Eduardo Malaya said the Supreme Court (SC) issued a resolution dated June 4, 2008 denying, for lack of merit, BCA Corp.’s second urgent motion to restrain the DFA on the MRP project.
BCA was the original proponent of the project, but the DFA terminated the contract with BCA in 2005 for its inability to implement the project due to its financial incapacity, among other reasons.
“After five long years from the date of award in 2000, BCA failed to manufacture and make available a single MRP,” the DFA said in a statement.
On June 28, 2009, the SC also issued a resolution denying the motion to intervene filed by the College Editors Guild of the Philippines, and ordered the expunging of their memorandum from the records. This expunged memorandum was extensively quoted in the paid advertisement.
“There is thus an apparent attempt by the proponents of the advertisement to mislead the public. On the contrary, transactions pertaining to these passport projects were legal and transparent,” the DFA said.
Sufficient basis
Malaya added that there is basis for the DFA’s cancellation of the contract earlier awarded to BCA as the Department of Justice (DOJ) has declared the cancellation with “basis in law and in fact.”
The Department of Finance, the Department of Trade and Industry, the National Economic and Development Authority, and other concerned government agencies fully share this view.
With the endorsement of the DOJ and other agencies, the DFA entered into an agreement with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), its original supplier for passports.
The BSP then conducted an open, competitive and public bidding on the DFA’s ePassport requirements, in strict compliance with procurement laws and regulations, the DFA said.
“It may interest your readers to note that the cancelled BCA project proposes a now outmoded passport technology, and for the Philippines to go back to the BCA’s proposal would be a retrogressive move, to the prejudice of overseas Filipino workers and traveling Filipinos, instead of a positive one toward a world-class passport,” Malaya said.
No longer discriminated
The DFA said Filipinos are no longer discriminated against in foreign airports on the basis of an inferior type of passport.
The ePassport was launched in August 2009 and is in full compliance with international requirements set by the International Civil Aviation Organization. The DFA said it is more secure, tamper-proof and highly credible.
“As clearly seen from the above discussions, the Supreme Court on two occasions in said case (G.R. No. 176657) sustained the DFA actions, which are likewise transparent and in the best interest of overseas Filipino workers and traveling Filipinos,” Malaya said.