Tamper-proof e-Passports ready by January, 2016
MALVAR, Batangas – By January next year, Filipino travelers can already avail of the new tamper-proof electronic passport with state-of-the-art safety and design features.
And it will no longer be the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) that
will print the new travel document. The e-Passports will be printed by the state-owned APO Production Unit’s high security printing plant in Malvar, Batangas.
APO Production Unit, an attached agency of the Presidential Communications Operations Office, recently forged a contract to print the e-passports for the Department of Foreign Affairs to efficiently meet the growing demand for the travel document.
A commemorative e-passport was issued to President Aquino – the first - during a live demonstration of APO’s latest security printing capability on Monday. The process took five minutes.
“The service level agreement forged between the DFA and the APO early this year will help ensure that the current system runs smoothly: both through maintenance and technical support provided by APO, and through an added printing facility located here. The good news is: This is only for the short term,” the President said in his speech.
Aquino said the DFA and APO are engaged in negotiations to improve further on the current system, and provide printing and personalization services for the next decade.
“The benefits of housing the entire ePassport system here are clear: The integration of processes in an expansive, and secure facility,” Aquino said.
“Let me take this opportunity to express my confidence that you will be able to reach an agreement at the soonest possible time, so that production can also begin as envisioned in January 2016,” he added.
New design
The previous e-Passport printing system has been hounded by many problems such as obsolete software and hardware and the inability to meet increasing demand, Aquino pointed out.
The process became more complicated since two integral stages of the production process – booklet printing and assembly, and personalization of passports – were done by two different entities.
“This naturally leads to inefficiency, which is compounded all the more by the increases in passport applications we’ve been seeing. In 2014, passport issuances breached the 3 million mark for the first time,” Aquino said.
With APO’s recent acquisition of new printing equipment and the streamlining of processes, the government aims to upgrade the security and integrity of the electronic travel document to comply with international standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization.
APO said the new e-passport will be made of more durable and higher quality materials to last beyond the normal wear-and-tear period.
It will also lessen the procedure from application to personalization and shorter waiting period for passport issuance. Regular processing for the head office and National Capital Region offices will be shortened from 15 to 10 working days, while express processing will be shortened from seven to five working days.
The new e-passport will also carry new Filipino design concepts including photographs of the country’s top tourist destinations on its pages.
The wings of the endangered Philippine cockatoo or red-ventured cockatoo in national colors are featured on the first pages of the e-passport. The rays of the sunset rendered in geometric patterns will bring “warmth and color.”
Highlights of the Philippine Constitution and the National Anthem will also be featured on all pages.
At present, APO handles the printing of excise stamps for the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Internal Revenue Stamp Information System.
Concerns raised
In his speech, the President praised APO’s remarkable transformation from being saddled by debt and inefficiency to a government owned and controlled corporation (GOCC) now performing well due to reforms initiated by his government.
Aquino recalled that APO was unable to fulfill its mandate to undertake printing jobs for government agencies and suffered “highest forms of inefficiency” for more than 30 years.