‘Kickbacks' behind Philippine passport mess

Locsin said former officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) under the Arroyo and Aquino administrations "perpetrated" a "passport fraud" that led to the data loss.

Locsin, responding to public concerns over the reported passport data mess, said the problem started at the DFA under then-president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and "got worse" during the time of Arroyo's successor, Benigno Aquino III.

"The problem started under GMA's DFA and got worse under PNoy's DFA. It will be solved by PRRD's DFA under Locsin. The Yellow crowd who perpetrated the passport fraud are in a panic because we are gonna autopsy their crooked deal. Period," Locsin stated in a tweet on Saturday.

Yellow is the color of the Liberal Party, of which Aquino is chairman emeritus.

"l will autopsy the Yellows who did the passport deal alive. This is called evisceration," said Locsin.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte appointed Teodory Locsin Jr foreign minister in October.

Locsin, a Harvard-school lawyer, was the former Philippine envoy to the UN who also served as congressman for the financial district of Makati. Locsin vowed to investigate the passport mess in his department.

Reason for switching e-passport contractor remains a mystery

Locsin speculated that the grease money may have benefitted certain officials following the “illegal” termination of the contract for e-passports printing in favour of a new entity.

It's not immediately clear who were the officials behind for the switch. It was the first company that won the bid to print the e-passports that Locsin said “ran away” with the data of unknown number of applicants.

Now, Senators, the Philippine privacy commission and the public are calling for a thorough probe of the data loss to identify and punish the culprits.

Locsin warned that the people behind the passport mess cross partisan lines — and that he’s ready to face the social media “troll” campaign against him orchestrated crooks who may be exposed by the probe.

Pointing to the mystery behind change of contractor, Locsin cited one story he heard from within the DFA: The contract of the previous passport printer was unduly terminated for a yet-unknown reason, and that the move by the government then as “in the wrong”.

"And by the way, why was the previous contractor terminated? New technology? Then demand it to acquire the new technology but leave the job to it. Di ba? But that means no kickback. In short, people made money by changing contractor. Ano pa (What else)? S**t," he said.

Locsin did not mention the names of companies involved.

3 contractors named

Locsin's predecessor gave the names — through a Facebook post.

In a Facebook post on Saturday, former DFA secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr bared more details about the passport mess. Locsin posted screenshots of his predecessor's post on Twitter.

Yasay presented a timeline of passport production contracts — which appeared to support Locsin's tweets.

Yasay mentioned 3 contractors: Francois-Charles Oberthur Fiduciare (FCOF), APO Production Unit Inc (APUI), and United Graphic Expression Corporation (UGEC).

Yasay said the DFA under the Aquino administration signed a contract with APUI for the production of e-passports even when an existing contract between the FCOF and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) was in effect.

Yasay’s timeline” of events:

August 1, 2006

The DFA and BSP signed a memorandum of agreement covering the procurement and centralized production of machine-readable electronic pasports (MREPs) in compliance with standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization. The BSP held a bidding process and granted the "main part" of the project to FCOF.

October 5, 2015

While FCOF continued to fulfill its duties under its contract with the BSP, the DFA awarded another contract to APUI for the production of e-passports, but it did not go through the bidding process. The deal with APUI stated that production cannot be subcontracted nor assigned to a private printer. But APUI still engaged the printing services of UGEC, in "stark violation" of this condition.

February 7, 2017

Duterte ordered Yasay and Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III to talk to BSP and discuss bringing back the responsibility of printing the MREPs to the BSP. The BSP "refused to budge."

February 10, 2017

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said the assignment of passport printing services to UGEC was "illegal." Panelo "demanded" that all rights over personal data, source code, data center, and other information relating to the e-passport printing services be reconveyed to the DFA.

Non-compliance, connivance

"Upon information and belief, it appears that UGEC which continues the illegal production of the e-passports has not complied," Yasay stated.

Ironically, Yasay said that the DFA "cannot hold UGEC accountable for any breach or screwup in the printing of the e-passport."

"I am sharing my personal knowledge about this passport mess, to help Secretary Locsin and the government undertake a thorough investigation to ensure that the past mistakes and wrongful actions of certain DFA officials in connivance with other officials of other government agencies and even in Congress regarding the problem at hand will not be repeated," said Yasay.

Privacy breach probe

Meanwhile, National Privacy Commission (NPC) chief Raymund Liboro told Philippine media that they are preparing to summon DFA officials and other agencies as well as the unnamed contractor to shed light on the matter.

“The NPC shall conduct its own investigation on the DFA assertion that a private contractor has caused the non-availability of Filipino passport data and other documents entrusted to it for processing,” Liboro was quoted as saying.