MANILA, Philippines — Insisting that he was not misinformed on the data breach in the Department of Foreign Affairs, Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. admitted that he lacks information on the breach.
Former Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. earlier said the country's top diplomat is misinformed on his claim that a contractor ran away with personal data of passport holders.Yasay, who served as DFA chief from July 2016 to March 2017, insisted that French firm Francois-Charles Oberthur Fiduciare could not have stolen data from the agency.
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"I love Perfecto Yasay but I am not 'misinformed' although I lack more information on what Panelo rightly says demands deep investigation: the anomalous DFA-BSP-Oberthur/APO passport contracts," Locsin said on Twitter.
I love Perfecto Yasay but I am not "misinformed" although I lack more information on what Panelo rightly says demands deep investigation: the anomalous DFA-BSP-Oberthur/APO passport contracts. My predecessors seem to be panicking. I don't know why. What do you think? Tweet.
— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) January 14, 2019
Locsin further noted that his predecessors "seem to be panicking" on the matter.
In another tweet, Locsin said there may not be a data breach but a "withholding of the data by irate Frenchmen."
The DFA chief added that he is "mildly pissed" as his agency's consular affairs division have already been "overburdened with useless requirements" and that there has been reports of corrupted data.
Point is this issue involves deals done by DFA-BSP-Oberthur/APO in GMA's & BSA3's admins and their failure; so public is inconvenienced, DFA consular affairs overburdened with useless requirements; & I am mildly pissed but pissed nonetheless. Data is said to be corrupted already. https://t.co/IVICudUvZf
— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) January 14, 2019
DFA Bert got frustrated, turned over passport printing to BSP wch turned it over to Oberthur wch refused to turn it over to APO after its contract was in its view unfairly terminated. The story is changing: servers are in ASEANA but can't be accessed. What happened to Lipa? https://t.co/bBuJZ91c7w
— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) January 14, 2019
Meanwhile, the National Privacy Commission has been directed to investigate the passport data breach and to determine whether provisions of the Data Privacy Act have been violated.
The commission is set to summon DFA officials, other agencies and the contractor to look into the incident.