Mabini Hall - Access to Justice

At long last and after decades of planning, court actions and personnel issues, the country has its first-ever machine-readable passport (MRP). Before this, we were among the few countries left in the world which produced our travel documents manually. This was one cause why passports took more time than needed to be issued—the DFA staff had to beautifully write or script in your personal details. Check your passport. Our old passports were easier to tamper resulting in suspicions and detailed examinations when we travel abroad. Who hasn’t had the jitters each time we face an immigration counter in a foreign land and get barked at by the immigration officer even if our passports are valid and genuine and our trip regular and aboveboard?

The idea of the MRP is basically very simple. With the widespread use of ATM cards, credit cards and all other forms of smart cards, it was time to have a passport that harnessed technology for efficiency, convenience and security. There is a Department of Foreign Affairs facility right at the heart of the Philippine International Convention Center that produces passports that are globally acceptable and credible. Other countries were already threatening not to recognize our passports. Imagine the consequences for our hardworking OFWs and trotting matronas.

The man mainly responsible is Assistant Secretary Doy Lucena­rio, officially confirmed recently as an ambassador. He managed to win over doubters and packaged the whole passport system at virtually no cost to the government and the taxpayer. At P500 each, our passport is one of the cheapest, if not the cheapest, anywhere in the world. This will surely benefit millions of our countrymen. Doy had to secure a legal opinion from the Department of Justice, work with the central bank for the procurement of the security paper and face several suppliers competing for the project. It was his single-minded focus building on the efforts of his predecessors that finally made the project a reality.

Do we have to wait until expiry to renew and get the new passport? No, you can choose to renew earlier to take advantage of the enhanced features. In fact, we are encouraged to test our new passports and start feeling secure as Filipino travelers. With the new passports security features, forgers and fakes will shift their focus more to the source documents that provide the data in the passport application. Already the National Statistics Office is undergoing its computerization campaign to vertically integrate its processes with the downstream offices and agencies. The birth certificate remains to be the key document in this regard, absent a national id system.

Regardless, we deserve this good news after a spate of scandals. Bad publicity always makes the headlines while the unsung tales of ordinary deeds and doing our jobs never see the light of day. We need to continue to dig up dedicated men and women in government to appreciate the magnitude and the difficulty of running the government. Pretty soon when we all get used to the ease and look of the new passport, we forget how we got to this point in the first place—the personal sacrifices made and the working hours endured. For too long we have not dared to venture to be bold and to undertake big things that will revolutionize how we operate our country and how we think as a people.

In the meantime, we have the confidence to protect the integrity of our travel document and regain the respectability of this document which represents the national dignity and image of the Philippines regardless of racial slurs and discrimination. Next stop—the e-passport. Watch for it.