Locsin U-turns on data claim

Newly-appointed Foreign Affairs Secretary and concurrent Representative to the United Nations Teodoro Locsin Jr. shares a light moment with Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission prior to the opening ceremony of the 12th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit at the Europa Building in Brussels, Belgium on October 18 Central European Summer Time. PRESIDENTIAL PHOTOS

There were no “runaway information” of our passport records after all, just a wordsmith of a Foreign Affairs secretary not finding the right words quick enough to describe his agency’s predicament that followed the flight of its hired data and printing unit.

“Not runaway but lost just the same and unusable in parts,” Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. related through social media where he also revealed the alleged exit of a terminated contractor which he said had run off with personal data of passport holders.

Locsin yesterday said the passport data are not lost but were made inaccessible to the DFA by the subcontractor recently terminated by the DFA. He assured the public government’s investigation of the mess continues.

“And we are just taking APO’s (APO Production Unit Inc.) word for it to get my way and remove birth certificate requirement. Investigation continues,” Locsin added.

The DFA chief is also standing firm on no longer requiring birth certificates for the renewal of passports as he is banking on the support of APO, which is in-charge of the production of passports, on the possible recovery of the data.

Locsin also stressed that the DFA is continuously conducting its probe of the matter after complaints by overseas Filipinos engaging Locsin in social media.

He said he has the backing of APO in pushing for the scrapping of the birth certificate as requirement for those who are renewing their old passports.

“APO assured me they were able to access but not much use and parts corrupted. APO agrees with me that old passports are best evidence of identity and join me in despising those who don’t agree with me,” he added.

Locsin said there are still some who are resisting the old passports as proofs but stressed that “old passports are more than sufficient” basis of identity.

At the time of former President Arroyo, French company Oberthur Technologies was contracted by the government to produce Philippine passports for the DFA.

In 2015, the administration of former President Benigno Simeon Aquino III tasked APO to print new passports. But it entered into a joint venture partnership with Filipino-owned company United Graphic Expression Corporation (UGEC) despite a ban on subcontracting the deal.

Meanwhile, former DFA Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. claimed there was “no compelling reason” for Aquino in 2015 to change the design of Philippine passports.

Yasay said the shift from the machine-readable passports (MRP) issued under Arroyo to the e-Passports released under Aquino was unnecessary because the MRP were already compliant with the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

The MRP was printed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) through Francois-Charles Oberthur Fiduciare which was tasked to build a personalized system for the passports completed in 2009.

But the Aquino administration in 2015 shifted to e-Passports, the contract for the printing of which was awarded to APO, which is under the then Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO).

“In 2015, for no compelling reason at all, the PNoy administration, through the PCOO, changed the MRP to slightly upgrade it. The MRP has no difference because it was already compliant under President Arroyo,” Yasay said. “It was not required by ICAO. Nobody was questioning it because we really were compliant.”

“The passport data is well guarded at the BSP office in Quezon City and has a backup copy with the DFA,” Yasay said. “All data gathered by DFA are just placed into that personalized system.”

But Yasay stressed that Oberthur’s system did not match that of UGEC, a private firm that APO subcontracted. He also noted that the UGEC and the DFA did not seek Oberthur’s help in threshing out the system out of embarrassment.

“The DFA and UGEC were too embarrassed to approach Oberthur because it was brushed aside,” Yasay said. “Secretary Locsin said we cannot do anything about it because we, meaning the DFA, were wrong,” he added.

Yasay narrated that APO lacked the “technical know-how” but still bagged the contract without bidding because it was a “government recognized printer” and the state-run firm, in tapping UGEC, violated the contract that bars it from getting a subcontractor.

An APO official denied Yasay’s claim, saying it directly undertakes all printing services while UGEC handles other aspects “such as financing, accounting and procurement of supplies and materials.”

Former Press Secretary Sonny Coloma also backed APO’s claim.

Albert del Rosario, who was Foreign Affairs chief of Aquino, said the public “should be left to judge the level of efficiency on passport issuances during our period of responsibility.”

Meanwhile, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Tuesday said it is conducting an investigation of the incident, saying it has acknowledged and is aware of the issues concerning Locsin’s statements on his Twitter account.

“The DICT CyberSecurity Bureau is currently in the process of conducting its own investigation.”

The DFA was classified as one of the country’s 12 Critical Information Infrastructures.

Under Republic Act 10844 or the DICT Act of 2015, DICT was mandated to provide oversight over the information assets, individuals and businesses related to the DFA information infrastructures.

“This is to ensure that the welfare of consumers, as well as the privacy and security of the data collected and used for their specific purpose adheres to the policies and practices of DICT,” it said.

The National Privacy Commission (NPC), in a separate interview, said it has summoned Foreign Affairs officials for a meeting on Wednesday as it continues to probe the passport data mess.

NPC Commissioner Raymund Liboro said the allegation by Locsin should not to be taken lightly.

“We are starting our investigation to zero in on the allegations released by Sec. Locsin last weekend regarding the unavailability of data now,” Liboro said. “There is no visible proof that data is being used illegally at this point. Usually when data is leaked illegally, there will be tell-tale signs on the get-go.”

The NPC commissioner said the commission’s investigators have yet to see signs of data breach even in the “dark web,” a portion of the Internet where illegally acquired information are sold.

He reminded government agencies controlling data that they are responsible for the information’s end-to-end security and failing to do so is punishable by law.

TAGS DFA passport data loss Teodoro Locsin Jr.