DFA: No Passport Disruption in 2015
MANILA – The Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday belied a newspaper report claiming the department will be facing ‘passport printing woes’ next year.
“The DFA assures that there will be no service disruption in the issuance of passports after 31 December 2014,” the DFA said.
The DFA was reacting to a report published Monday on the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Biz Buzz column.
The report cited an alleged existing printing deal that the DFA supposedly has with a private printing firm which is set to expire on Wednesday, the end of 2014.
“There is no existing deal between the DFA and a private entity that will expire on 31 December 2014,” the DFA said.
The report stated that with the expiring deal, the “DFA will be left with no means to print personal data information on the passport (that all-important first page where the passport holder’s picture and other important information are printed)”.
“Technical support is in place for the e-Passport system and it will continue during the lifetime of the said system,” the DFA said.
It likewise assured the public that a special software is being used for the e-Passport system which is current and secure.
“Manual intervention on the data page is not possible. The software being used was designed to secure personal data from the point of capture to the personalization site,” it stated.