P8 billion e-passport printing deal questioned

WITHOUT public bidding, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) awarded its P8 billion e-passport project to a private firm with no established record in printing security documents, an administration ally in Congress said.

Akbayan party-list Rep. Ibarra Gutierrez III urged the DFA to explain why it awarded the e-passport printing deal to the APO Production Unit which, according to Gutierrez, outsourced the project to another printer.

He said passports were previously printed at the security plant complex of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas before the DFA entered into a 10-year contract with APO.

“Why fix what ain’t broke? Why did the DFA suddenly agree to transfer the production of the country’s passports to the APO Production Unit, a private firm that has no established track record for printing security documents?” Gutierrez said.

Reached for comment, Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose defended the contract with APO Production.

“I don’t think we would have entered into it if it were not aboveboard,” Jose told Hong Kong News.

But the DFA official declined to give details as to how APO was chosen.

“We will reply in the proper forum. If Congress will call a hearing on this issue and if we are invited to it, then that is the proper forum for us to give our side,” Jose added.

Filipino groups in Hong Kong had complained against the “expensive” price tag of Philippine e-passports as compared to those of Indonesians. A Philippine-passport costs HK$480 while Indonesian passports cost only $280 (48 pages) and $124 (24 pages).

Filipinos here also complained earlier that it took them three months to get their new e-passports.

Gutierrez said that after APO got the deal, it outsourced the printing of passports to United Graphic Expression (UGEC), another private commercial printer.

“If the DFA really intends to modernize and make more secure Philippine passports, it should have considered the world’s leading producer of e-passports and e-booklets,” Gutierrez said.

He also noted that the 10-year printing contract with the APO Production Unit, as well as the latter’s outsourcing of the printing job to UGEC “were all done without the benefit of a public
bidding.”

“What is the reason for all the haste and the secrecy? This is more than just a question of convenience, but one of national security,” Gutierrez said.

“The security features are there precisely to prevent our passports from being easily counterfeited and used by criminal syndicates and terrorist organizations. We cannot put this vital task into the hands of a company with a less than solid record,” he added.

Gutierrez added that the APO Production Unit had taken on the status of a “quasi-government body” after it was placed under the Presidential Communications Operations Office.

However, its employees continue to be members of the Social Security System (SSS) and its adoption under the PCOO was essentially for the purpose of supporting the printing of the “government’s information and propaganda materials.”

“Given its outdated printing equipment, the APO Production Unit is not even considered a top commercial printer,” Gutierrez said. – with Maia Lopez