Lawmaker probes alleged overpricing of passport laminate

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teddy Casiño is set to meet with leaders of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) anytime this month to get a clearer picture of their allegations that there is an overpricing in the passport laminate procured by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) from a private company.

In an interview with The STAR, Casiño said that “in principle” the appropriate committee in the House of Representatives must investigate CEGP’s allegations.

“But I don’t want to comment without clarifying the matter with the incumbent CEGP members first,” Casiño, a former CEGP president himself, said. He added that he has not yet discussed the case the CEGP filed before the Office of the Ombudsman since the group’s leaders are in Davao attending a conference.

In a paid advertisement in another paper, the CEGP claimed that the laminates used in the production of the machine-readable passports are grossly overpriced.

“The DFA is procuring passport laminates from Hologram Industries at 0.85 euro per piece. The apparent overprice is .74 euro or P50 per passport laminate,” the CEGP ads read.

The CEGP said the total overprice in passport laminates can run into hundreds of millions of pesos because the DFA issues millions of passports per year.

“This shocking revelation is evidenced by official documents obtained from the Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores (office of the Secretary of Foreign Relations) of Mexico,” the CEGP said.

The CEGP said nine corporations, including Hologram Industries, participated in the public bidding on Aug. 17, 2007 in Mexico City to supply the DFA with passport laminates.

“The documents further showed that Hologram Industries tendered a bid for the passport laminates at only $0.34 or 0.11 euro per piece,” the CEGP said.