Firm’s deal with gov’t on passports questioned

(From left) Foreign Undersecretary Jose Luis Montales, Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and former Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. attend a hearing of the House of Representatives on allegations of irregularities in the making of passports by a government-owned printing company and a private firm. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

Former Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. on Tuesday told a House inquiry that the joint venture agreement between the state-run APO Production Unit and the United Graphic Expression Corp. (Ugec) for the printing of Philippine passports was “disadvantageous” to the government.

“As of now, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) cannot hold Ugec accountable, even as (it is) in direct control of the plant facilities” in the Lima Technology Center in Batangas, Yasay said.

Not part of pact

During the joint inquiry of the House of Representatives’ good government and foreign affairs committees, Yasay also noted that Ugec was not a party to the memorandum of agreement between the DFA and APO for the 10-year e-passport printing project.

Yasay said he rescinded the contract last year and reverted to the printing services of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. Despite this, APO-Ugec continued to print the passports, Yasay said.

Security paper

Questions were also raised on Ugec being allowed to purchase security paper for the passports without it following the Government Procurement Reform Act, with ACTS OFW Rep. Aniceto Bertiz III suggesting that such a leeway could allow it to control the quality of the printing paper it uses to ensure profitability.

But “the DFA was not without remedy if they find the paper or the quality of the booklet subpar,” countered lawyer Aileen Sanguir, APO-Ugec Security Printing Joint Venture counsel.

In fact, Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said the Philippine passport has won an award for its security features during an exhibition in Singapore.

Cayetano’s commitment

During the same hearing, Cayetano addressed the backlog problem in booking online appointments for passport processing and said extending the passport validity to 10 years from the previous five had raised the demand.

Cayetano also made a commitment to increase the DFA’s daily processing of applications to 30,030 from the current 19,030, by adding eight new regional consular offices.