P-Noy urged to probe P2-billion passport project

MANILA, Philippines - The College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) yesterday called on President Aquino to order an investigation into the alleged anomalous P2 billion machine readable passport and visa (MRP-V) project of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

The MRP-V was initiated during the term of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

In a letter to the President, CEGP’s Trina Federis urged Aquino to look into the graft complaint they filed before the Office of the Ombudsman in 2007 against a former DFA executive, Domingo Lucenario, for terminating a privately-funded electronic passport project.

She said the government has so far spent P1.625 billion for the MRP-V project.