DFA is 108 years old
The Department of Foreign Affairs is celebrating its 108th founding anniversary this Friday, July 18. It is as old as our Philippine Republic, DFA Secretary Alberto Romulo proudly cited. While this could be a good reason to celebrate their anniversary with a grand party reception, there won’t be any at all. The men and women in the foreign affairs service will observe this special day in the spirit of austerity at the DFA head office in
Secretary Romulo will lead the flag-raising rites in the morning, deliver his anniversary message, and that ends the brief anniversary program. All of them would just go back to their respective offices to work. The DFA Secretary has all the reasons to hold a very simple yet meaningful commemoration of their anniversary. He especially noted the fact many of our countrymen in the provinces severely struck by typhoon Frank are still in the middle of rebuilding their damaged homes and trying to go back to their livelihood after being disrupted by this latest disaster.
No, it’s not true that Secretary Romulo is planning to run again for the Senate. If he sounded like a candidate for the 2010 elections in making this profound statement commiserating with our typhoon-stricken compatriots, it’s because, I think, he is one role model for a Senator who walks the talk. I have seen Romulo work up close when I was still covering the Senate and he was then the Senate majority leader. He loved his work as Senate majority leader that he always found satisfaction to be the first one to report for work but the last one out in office.
We had a reunion of sorts at Malacañang later when he served at one time as the executive secretary of President Arroyo. I distinctly recall those days at the Palace how it pained Romulo to be the one to give the pink slip and deliver the bad news to his fellow Cabinet members about losing their Cabinet posts. It was too much of a burden for him and bad for his health, on top of the rigors of the job as “little President.” The DFA post for Romulo has apparently been tailor-fit for him in the kind of diplomatese he excels in, both in words and in deeds.
It should be understandable why Romulo opted not to host the usual reception party on the occasion of the 108th anniversary of the DFA. He found it prudent to instead observe this special occasion quietly and without the traditional fanfare. Naturally, it would be at the height of insensitivity for the DFA to do so at this time considering it is the government office that has directly received the assistance for the victims of typhoon Frank that poured in from our neighbors in the international community.
As far as Romulo is concerned, the DFA is a “frontline” agency of the government that must serve the interest and welfare of Filipinos here and abroad, especially our overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) employed in various parts of the world. This is in line, he pointed out, with the principles espoused by the late Apolinario Mabini, our country’s hero called as the “sublime paralytic.” Mabini was the first Foreign Affairs Secretary, or it was called then as the External Relations of the Philippine revolutionary government of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo.
Although there will be no cocktails or the typical diplomatic reception, the DFA will have a special exhibit at their lobby about the evolution of Philippine passports. The exhibit will showcase the modernization of Philippine passports through the years. The highlight of the exhibit will be the diplomatic passports issued by the DFA to the former Presidents of the Republic. Perhaps, we would finally reckon from the DFA exhibit of passports who among our former Presidents had the most number of travels abroad during their terms.
But there is one particular Philippine passport that has a special place in our country’s history. Because Romulo is a close friend and one of the original “Yellow” supporters of former President Corazon Aquino, the DFA was able to borrow for exhibit the Philippine passport issued to her late husband, ex-Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. under his alias “Marcial Bonifacio.” The slain Senator used this passport to avoid detection by the Marcosian agents when he traveled back from his self-exile in the
Actually, the exhibit also seeks to trace the progress of the Philippine passport that would soon become electronically compatible with the rest of the world. At present, the DFA has so far hurdled the so-called birthing pains of its program that implemented the new machine-readable passport. This MRP is the transition to the E-passport that would soon be issued by the DFA tentatively set to be launched in October. The feature of this E-passport is the computer chip that contains the biometrics of the passport holder and therefore is tamper-proof and not susceptible to being faked or taking another person’s identity. Given the security features of this primary travel document, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is the sole designated manufacturer of all E-passports of the DFA.
As DFA Secretary, Romulo knows only too well the utmost need to protect the sanctity of Philippine passports, especially with the more than 15 million OFWs called as “modern-day” heroes spread across the globe using this basic travel document. Since the E-passport entails additional cost for the government to produce, there may be some additional charges for securing this document. The DFA did not raise the fee for the five-year MRP. Romulo disclosed he has asked an inter-agency study among the DFA, the Department of Labor and Employment and other concerned government offices to work out how much the E-passport would be charged to OFWs.
In the meantime, Philippine ambassadors and consuls-general from the
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