Akbayan party-list Rep. Barry Guetierrez has expressed hope that the Foreign Affairs department will be able to shed light on the 10-year contract worth P8 billion it forged with the APO Production Unit to produce the country’s e-passports.
Gutierrez said he will file a resolution in Congress to look into the matter “in aid of legislation.”
He said he will push for the inquiry when Congress resumes session on Monday.
Gutierrez, whose party-list group is allied with the House majority bloc, said he could not help but question the necessity for the Foreign Affairs department get the service of Apo Production Unit when Philippine passports have been printed at the security plant complex of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for the last several years.
“We expect the DFA to explain and clarify its intentions and fully explain the reasons behind its decision to transfer the printing of the country’s passports from the BSP to the APO Production,” Gutierrez said. “We hope the DFA will be able to provide us a good explanation for this,” Gutierrez added.
Gutierrez said the security plant of the BSP is the only government-owned printing facility that has the capability and the necessary security features required in producing such vital travel documents.
“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 earlier asked.
A private company, the APO Production Unit has taken on the status of a “quasi-government body” after it was placed under the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO). Its employees, however, 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.
Gutierrez ealier questioned the capability of the APO Production Unit to handle the printing of passports “given its outdated printing equipment.”
“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 ealier said.
DFA’s awarding of the e-passport printing contract to 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, the Akbayan representative pointed out.
