An umbrella organization of labor unions is urging Congress to look into the e-passport project with a view to making the travel document more affordable for the working class, including the overseas Filipino workers.
Philippines Association of Free Labor Unions president Terry Tuazon said the e-passports being issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs cost P950 on top of P250 for “overtime charges” if the applicant was in a hurry and opted to use the express lane service.
He discussed further that the old maroon-colored machine readable passport costs only P550, or P700 “if you want it faster.”
“Except for the electronic chip that is embedded in the e-passport that captures data and security features there are no other enhancement to justify the high cost. Digital products are getting cheaper not going expensive,’’ Tuazon said.
“With 17,000 new applicants [daily] who troop to the various consular offices all over the country that’s a lot of money for the government,” Tuazon noted.
APO-Production Unit and its private partner stand to rake in a whopping P25.5 billion from the e-passport contract, far outweighing the P9 billion offer of a controversial cigarette manufacturer to settle its tax cases with the government.
In a statement, Paflu slammed the alleged overpricing of the new digital passport as “anti-worker.”
“Many of the passport applicants are workers who leave their family to work abroad. Data indicates that there are 5,000 Filipinos who leave the country everyday either as tourists, as an OFW and those who immigrate to other countries for good,” Tuazon added.
In batting for the congressional inquiry, the Paflu invoked the government policy to raise the quality of life of the marginalized Filipinos.
“The prudent policy is to make life a little bearable for our workers and not to impose additional burden. The abolition of the terminal fee is in line with this policy thrust,” the labor leader stressed.
PAFLU also assailed the DFA’s decision to de-commission the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas from the passport project, and grant the multibillion-peso contract to the APO-PU, also a state-run printing facility, which in turn subcontracted it to the privately owned United Graphic Expression Corporation (UGEC).
“We take cognizance of newspaper reports that the production or manufacture of these e-passports was awarded to a private company without passing through usual procurement procedures: no bidding; no diligence report; a sharing scheme that is disadvantageous to the government. In other words, not only are our travelling workers made to pay for an expensive booklet but even our government is being short-changed,” PAFLU said.
It branded the deal as “scandalous” and should not be tolerated.
“We therefore ask Congress to look into this matter earnestly. The entire transaction does not sit well for a government that was elected to curb graft and corruption,” the group stated.