Supreme Court averts passport crisis

It could have been a nightmare that is par for the course in our beloved country. By June no new Philippine passports can be issued because the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) would have used up its stock. As it happened, a TRO was issued by a Pasig regional trial court that prevents the DFA and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) from producing the new type of passport that is required in our post 9/11 world.

Luckily, the Supreme Court acted positively on an urgent motion filed by DFA to allow it to proceed with the production of the new e-passports. The e-passport project will upgrade the current passport to one that is biometric and interoperable with systems in immigration ports of entry throughout the world. The DFA issues some 7,500 passports a day or some two million a year.

If the Supreme Court didn’t act quickly, Pinoys who do not already have the old type of passport can no longer travel abroad for want of a travel document. We will lose a good part of our OFW market in the process. Imagine the social unrest from thousands of jobless Pinoys who can’t even take the option of working abroad. Three thousand of them leave daily for jobs abroad.

Worse, by 2010, even the old passport will no longer be acknowledged as a travel document because it falls short of the International Civil Aviation Organization specifications setting no less than the e-passport as the standard passport. The Philippines is the only member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations without a machine-readable passport now. This is clearly a failure of the DFA leadership and bureaucracy.

I was afraid something like this was going to happen. I had been warning for years that the DFA is not acting fast enough on the modernization program for our passports. When they finally signed a contract, it took so long for the winning bidder to do anything about it. Now, DFA is saying that the contract, which uses bar codes, had been overtaken by technology.

For that and other reasons, Foreign Secretary Bert Romulo cancelled the contract and worked out a new project with the Bangko Sentral that would adopt the latest technology and make our passports in line with international post 9/11 regulations. But in a country with a surplus of lawyers, of course the original contract holder sued. Then a judge in Pasig issued a TRO that puts everything in limbo… until the Supreme Court saved the day.

I thought there is a law that prevents the issuance of TROs on vital government projects. This passport modernization program is as vital as they get. In the testimony of Assistant Secretary Domingo Lucenario during the court hearing, "It takes at least seven months for the BSP to deliver new passports."  

Oh well. Aside from this legal complication, this passport crisis is also the result of a common malady in government: no sense of urgency. Very few people in this country know the meaning of production lead time. That’s why we keep on getting power shortages. It takes at least five years to build a power plant and we don’t decide to order a new one until the very last minute. Unfortunately, you can’t fall in line at McDonalds and buy a power plant. You can’t get a new state of the art passport at Jollibee, either.   

It is bad enough that we have tarried too long in this matter of modernizing our passports. As Sen. Roxas puts it, our national dignity is at stake here. For too long now Filipino tourists and overseas workers have been suffering the embarrassment of extraordinary scrutiny in all major international airports because of our primitive passports that are easily forged.

I understand that the Philippines is the only country in Asia without a modern passport, and is included in a short list of countries with such outdated passports: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus, Mauritania, Nepal, Chad, Togo, Tunisia and Guinee-Bissau. "This list," according to Sen. Roxas, includes the world’s poorest African countries. For example, Chad is a conflict-ridden country, affected by drought and armed rebellion, with hundreds and thousands of Sudanese refugees crossing into their borders. What is our excuse?"

The Supreme Court order does not necessarily mean the side of the contractor dropped by DFA will no longer be heard. Perhaps there is a way for the merits of the case to be presented to the court without the normal operations of the DFA Passport Office being adversely affected. If it is proven that DFA erred in any way and damages must be paid, so be it.

But the Filipino people must not be held hostage by this legal skirmish. The welfare of the entire Filipino people is clearly superior to the rights of a company, no matter if it had been unjustly deprived of its contract. According to the DFA, the e-passport project is different from the MRP/V project which is the subject of the court case.

Come to think of it, our new supposedly modern NAIA 3 is also mired in legal battles. Since we don’t have a decent airport, why should we have a decent passport? Can’t this government do anything without getting mired in court cases?

The Supreme Court just saved us the national embarrassment of running out of passports by June. Then again, even if we act now, it takes seven months to produce those passports. So, we’ll likely have the crisis anyway because DFA acted way too late, even without the court case.

Big pharma

I got this e-mail from Hermenegildo Gutierrez.

Thank you for today’s article on the Big Pharma and its manipulation of the local drug industry. Let me give you my forecast on the Roxas bill: The proposed Roxas bill on drugs will not be enacted into law; the local drug industry is soooo profitable that the Big Pharma will not part with this profit without a fight, and our lawmakers are not known to be fighters for   causes which do not benefit their own wallets. When was the last time a bill adversely affecting big foreign industries passed Congress and enacted into law?

As important as the proposed drug bill, and totally ignored at present, is the high prices of agricultural inputs. Boo, I’ve been to India and I can attest to the cheapness of their medicines. These medicines are made by subsidiaries of Big Pharma and are priced at least one-fourth of their price in the Philippines.

I also found out that the prices of their agricultural inputs are cheaper by that same fraction. Boo, just think about what the impact on our agricultural industry will be if the prices of inputs are at least halved! We are always talking about the significance of agriculture in our country but no one seems to be seeking ways to lower the price of inputs which is currently skyrocketing. I have yet to hear of any senatorial candidate propose or promise something about lowering the prices of medicines and agri inputs.

Pinoy drivers?

While driving along the back roads of a small town, two truckers came to an overpass with a sign that read CLEARANCE 11’3". They got out and measured their rig, which was 12’4".

"What do you think?" one asked the other.

The driver looked around carefully, then shifted into first. "Not a cop in sight. Let’s take a chance!"

Boo Chanco ‘s e-mail address is [email protected]