DFA, BSP execs face graft raps for P2-B e-passport project

An alliance of campus journalists filed graft and administrative cases with the Ombudsman against the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for alleged anomalies in the P2 billion electronic passport or "e-passport" project.

In a 15-page complaint, the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) accused DFA Assistant Secretary Domingo Lucenario and several "John Does" from the DFA and BSP of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

CEGP was represented by its national president Jose Cosido and vice chair for the National Capital Region Annaliza Tolentino.

CEGP said the officials deliberately delayed the machine-readable passport and visa (MRPV) being undertaken by a private contractor so that they could accommodate the "e-passport" project.

CEGP said the DFA officials "raised issues that they themselves conjured, and stubbornly refused to act on decision items that would have addressed the very issues that they raised in order to sabotage the implementation of a privately-funded MRPV-BOT project in order to push the government funded e-passport project."

BSP conducted on Dec. 1, 2006 a bidding for the "supply, delivery, installation and commissioning of a system for the production of Electronic Passport Booklets."

However, the CEGP said the P2-billion project would not have been necessary had the DFA supported the MRPV of private firm BCA International. BCA bagged the contract in 2000.

The move to modernize the country’s passport system was in compliance with the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization or ICAO. The international aviation and air travel watchdog wants member-countries to have machine readable passports by 2010.

DFA had terminated its contract with BCA in December 2005 reportedly due to questions on the financial capability of the firm.

But BCA turned out to have passed a financial capability assessment. It was also one of the five pre-qualified bidders which passed the technical review conducted by the DFA Bids and Awards Committee for the MRPV project.

"Instead of financing this multi-billion project, why not allocate it to subsidize social services such as education?" Cosido asked.

According to CEGP, the University of the Philippines’ budget is P1.5 billion, which also covers the operation of the Philippine General Hospital.

Cosido added that UP, the largest state university in terms of population with almost 60,000 students, gets only P500 million in yearly subsidy from the national government.