Perfecto Yasay Jr.: ‘No data loss, but passports cost more’

Yasay says DFA data breached

MANILA, Philippines — There is no data breach or leak in the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), but only an apparent inability to access data from the previous contractor, according to former DFA secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr.

Yasay had questioned the scrapping of the passport deal with the original contractor and its award to another company that worked with the government, but which subcontracted the service to a private firm.

He also tried to bring down the cost of passports from about P900 to just P600, but the new contractor reneged on the provisions of a renegotiated agreement that Yasay said he had pushed for before he would sign the contract.

Speaking to The Chiefs last night on One News-Cignal TV, Yasay said he believed his plan to scrap the contract cost him his confirmation as DFA chief by the Commission on Appointments, where several opposition members had questioned his resistance to the deal.

In another interview yesterday, Yasay also described as “false” and “malicious” Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.’s earlier statement that a contractor stole passport data.

In an interview on ANC’s Headstart, Yasay, DFA chief from June 2016 to March 2017, said Locsin was “misinformed” when he said the contractor “ran away and the DFA couldn’t do anything about it because the DFA was wrong.”

“I don’t believe and I say this very categorically,” Yasay said. “I’ll say he was misinformed.”

The production and personalization of machine readable electronic passports (MREPs) was subcontracted to Francois-Charles Oberthur Fiduciare, a private entity, after it was awarded the contract through a public bidding. 

Oberthur was hired through the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to set up the personalization system and production of MREP according to standards imposed by the International Civil Aviation Office for a uniform standard in the security of the travel documents.

This system, Yasay said, was kept in the secured facilities of BSP and a backup system was kept by the DFA in its offices.

Oberthur continued to assist the DFA and BSP in the operation and management of the system for free until 2014 when the DFA issued a Purchase Order contract in favor of APO Production Unit Inc., a government credited and recognized printer, with the assistance of United Graphic Expression Corp. (UGEC).

“When APO and UGEC came in Oberthur withdrew, after all it was just assisting the government in the management and operation of the system for free. It had already completed its contract,” Yasay said. “But to say now that Oberthur ran away with the data is completely false and malicious.”

Cybersecurity law expert Jose Jesus Disini Jr. agreed with Yasay’s statement that passport data could not have been stolen by a previous contractor because the BSP and DFA have copies of the data. 

Yasay added that the submission of birth certificates for the renewal of passports was preposterous since these had earlier been submitted.

“The only reason, compelling reason, I can see is because they wanted to deflect the real issue of the passport mess, which is awarding the production of the passport from an end-to-end basis to APO,” Yasay said.

He added that APO subcontracted the production of e-passports to UGEC without bidding and was “in violation of the law.”

The contract stipulated that APO could not subcontract any part of the process without bidding.

The contract with UGEC, Yasay said, “was never sustained” but still exists because powerful members of Congress and the Commission on Appointments intervened and said there was nothing wrong with the contract.

“The data has always been with the DFA,” Yasay told The Chiefs. “There was no running away (with the data).”

In his post on Twitter, Locsin said he was not misinformed about the mess.

“My predecessors seem to be panicking. I don’t know why. What do you think?” Locsin said as he urged his followers on Twitter to send him their opinions.

Former foreign secretary Albert del Rosario declined on Sunday to comment on Locsin’s statements.

Del Rosario said he has a high measure of respect for Locsin’s judgment “so I will refuse to comment on his early findings concerning the passport challenges.”

“It has been several years since I left the department and much appears to have happened since then,” Del Rosario said in a text to The STAR.

For now, Del Rosario said the public should be left to judge the level of efficiency on passport issuances during their period of responsibility at the DFA.

“I know that, sooner than later, our (secretary of foreign affairs) will be successful in correcting the current passport problems to the total satisfaction of all our people. Let us manifest our confidence in him,” Del Rosario said.