DFA suspends issuance of hajj passports

MANILA, Philippines – Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. has suspended the issuance of hajj passports following the arrest of 177 Indonesians in possession of Philippine passports to attend the hajj pilgrimage in Mecca last week.

During the House appropriations committee hearing yesterday on the budget of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Yasay said he would recommend to Congress the scrapping of the special travel document when it tackles the proposal to extend passport validity from five years to 10 years.

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) released on Friday the 177 Indonesians to the Indonesian ambassador upon request of Jakarta.

They were freed on condition that they would be made available during court hearings and would testify against their five Filipino escorts tagged in the P200-million passport scam, BI spokesperson Ma. Antonette Mangrobang said.

The BI said Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II did not object to the Indonesian ambassador’s request.

The Department of Justice has filed syndicated estafa charges against the five Filipinos who reportedly helped the Indonesians process their Philippine passports.

Each Indonesian reportedly paid $6,000 to $10,000 in exchange for a Philippine passport.

The Indonesians were brought to the BI detention facility at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig following their arrest by immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Aug. 19.

“The Indonesians were turned over to the Indonesian embassy while they are being processed by the BI for eventual deportation,” DFA spokesman Charles Jose said.

Passport racket

Up to 4,000 Philippine passports have been issued this year to non-Filipino Muslim pilgrims to Mecca, Yasay said.

Based on initial inquiry, Yasay said Saudi Arabia gave the Philippines a quota of 8,000 pilgrims for next month’s hajj.

“Of this number, we have issued 4,000 hajj passports to Filipino Muslims, while the rest were issued to foreigners, mostly Indonesians,” he said.

He said the Indonesians who were given Philippine passports included the 177 arrested by immigration officers at the airport last week.

The Indonesians were held when they could not speak Filipino or any local dialect. Their Filipino escorts were also detained.

“A syndicate, and I am using the term loosely, is behind this racket. They are charging from $6,000 to $10,000 per passport,” Yasay said.

He said the syndicate is composed of personnel from the DFA and the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF).

Yasay said he has relieved one DFA employee for involvement in the anomaly.

“This irregularity has been going on since the issuance of hajj passports started years ago,” he said.

He told congressmen that the 8,000 passports for Mecca visitors this year, including foreign Muslims, were issued “in May and June under the previous administration.”

Based on the amounts Yasay mentioned, the syndicate must have raked in $24 million to $40 million (from P1.128 billion to P1.88 billion based on an exchange rate of P47 to the dollar) from the 4,000 Philippine passports issued to foreign Muslims.

On questioning by Rep. Makmod Mending Jr. of party-list group Anak Mindanao, Yasay said the DFA relied on NCMF certifications in issuing hajj passports.

“There were lax requirements for identification of the applicants. Most of the passports were issued by our main office without the applicants appearing before the consular officers,” he said.

Mending said the DFA violated its own rule requiring personal appearance for passport issuance.

He told The STAR that the hajj passport is a special travel document for the Mecca pilgrimage.

“It is good for one year,” he said.

Asked when the issuance of the special document started, he said, “Since before I was born.”

Mending theorized that the hajj passport was invented “to facilitate travel to Mecca because many of us Muslims do not have birth certificates.”

He said affidavits from at least two persons who know a Muslim applicant are usually good enough to take the place of a birth certificate.

“What matters is the certification and endorsement of the NCMF,” he said. – With Evelyn Macairan, Jess Diaz