Del Rosario: Cancellation of diplomatic passports reverts to Congress

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has to go back to Congress to allow the amendment of the law on granting of diplomatic passports to its former officials and diplomats.

Former foreign affairs secretary Albert del Rosario said the law grants the lifetime privilege to former DFA secretaries and ambassadors.

He said the cancellation of all diplomatic passports was done by the DFA “without much reflection.”

“There doesn’t seem to be any plausible explanation at this time but it’s being questioned because why is it coming at this time and why are we doing this? But our view, we have lawyers working on this until late last night (Sunday), is they cannot do this,” Del Rosario told “The Chiefs” late Monday on One News-Cignal TV.

Del Rosario emphasized the Philippine Passport Act or Republic Act 8239 supersedes the DFA order to cancel this privilege.

Under RA 8239 and RA 7157, he said former secretaries of foreign affairs and ambassadors are entitled to diplomatic passports and are “imbued with diplomatic status.”

“They can say that and they can review. But I think if they want to make an alteration of the granting of these diplomatic passports they have to go back to Congress to revise the law,” Del Rosario said.

“If they want to change it they should work for the amendment,” he said.

“I have been too critical of this administration and they want to create some discomfort for me,” he stressed.

Del Rosario agreed with observations that the DFA went beyond the intent of the law.

However, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. denied the cancellation of courtesy diplomatic passports is unlawful.

On Friday, Del Rosario was detained for six hours in Hong Kong and interrogated by immigration authorities.

“There is a legitimate issue here which may cause the foreign secretary or the government to compel him to defend our seal,” he said, referring to the seal of the Philippine government embedded in the passport.

Reacting to Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra’s remark that he should have learned from the Hong Kong ordeal of former ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and should have expected to be denied entry, Del Rosario said he was aware of what happened to Morales.

According to Del Rosario, he coordinated with the DFA two weeks before his departure to determine if there would be any problem.

“On the basis of the reaction of the justice secretary, precisely I anticipated it. That’s why I went to seek the assistance of SFA (Secretary of Foreign Affairs)’s office to get Hong Kong to work with chief of immigration. I wanted to know if there was gonna be problem I probably would not have gone there,” Del Rosario said.

The former DFA chief was not informed that he would be rejected at the airport.

“That was not what was conveyed to me. Nothing was conveyed to me that it would be anything different from all the trips that I’ve taken,” he said.