{"id":197769,"date":"2019-01-15T01:57:45","date_gmt":"2019-01-15T06:57:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=197769"},"modified":"2019-01-15T01:57:45","modified_gmt":"2019-01-15T06:57:45","slug":"panelo-wants-to-clear-up-alleged-passport-data-breach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/01\/15\/panelo-wants-to-clear-up-alleged-passport-data-breach\/","title":{"rendered":"Panelo wants to \u2018clear up\u2019 alleged passport data breach"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Panelo made this remark due to the conflicting claims made by Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. and his predecessor, Perfecto Yasay, after the DFA declaration that it lost passport data to its old contractor. (File Photo<\/a>: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo on Monday said that he will write the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), and a sub-contractor involved in the reported passport data loss caused by a previous contractor of the DFA to find out whether passport holders\u2019 data is really missing or not.<\/p>\n

Panelo made this remark due to the conflicting claims made by Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. and his predecessor, Perfecto Yasay, after the DFA declaration that it lost passport data to its old contractor.<\/p>\n

While Locsin claimed that foreign contractor, French firm Francois-Charles Oberthur Fiduciare, took the personal data of passport holders, Yasay argued that Locsin’s statement is false and that the DFA chief wanted to deflect the real issue on the passport mess.<\/p>\n

\u201cDi pa nga natin alam kung totoong nawal<\/em>a (We don\u2019t even know if data is really missing or not). I need to know exactly, nawala ba o hindi<\/em>(is it missing or not)? I\u2019m waiting for the DFA to tell us,\u201d Panelo said in a Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re writing the DFA regarding that matter. We\u2019re also writing PCOO relative to the same. We\u2019re writing also UGEC (United Graphic Expression Corporation),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo said he wanted the DFA, PCOO, and UGEC to clarify \u201cthe real score\u201d on breach in passport data.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will just ask for a status,\u00a0ano ba talaga<\/em>\u00a0(what really happened)? What\u2019s the score?\u00a0Nawala ba o hindi? At sino<\/em>\u00a0(Did they go missing? And who\u2019s fault was it)? I need to know the facts,\u201d Panelo told reporters in an interview after the briefing.<\/p>\n

Before the contract for the production of Philippine electronic passports was awarded to the APO Production Unit (APO) Inc., the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, through French firm Francois-Charles Oberthur Fiduciare, had been printing passport booklets.<\/p>\n

Yasay claimed APO, a government owned and controlled corporation that operates under PCOO\u2019s wing, sub-contracted UGEC for the production of the new e-passports “without bidding\u201d which is in violation of the law.<\/p>\n

Formal communication<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelo refused to further comment on the issue noting that his office has yet to receive complete documents or formal communication explaining the passport data mess.<\/p>\n

\u201cKulang yung mga dokumento kaya hindi ako makagawa ng<\/em>\u00a0(We lack the documents so I cannot make a) conclusive opinion on the matter. So, we\u2019ve been asking them to give us all the documents relative to that matter\u00a0pero kulang e<\/em>\u00a0(but they\u2019re lacking),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need the facts\u00a0bago kami gumawa ng komentaryo<\/em>\u00a0(before I make comments). I want formal communication coming from them and giving me the facts,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo said it was best to await results of the investigation being conducted by the DFA and the National Privacy Commission (NPC) to clarify the issues at hand.<\/p>\n

According to Panelo, President Rodrigo R. Duterte himself was concerned about the passport data going missing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President of course doesn\u2019t want these birth certificates being lost, even without him saying it,\u00a0di dapat mangyari yun<\/em>\u00a0(it should not have happened),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

He assured the passport holders that government is addressing the problem and will not allow any other delays in the issuance or renewal of passports.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not allow any delay in the issuance of passports or putting stringent requirements that will burden our people into getting their passports,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Panelo said the DFA should also make it a point \u201cto learn from whatever lessons they have\u201d with respect to a breach in data security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo on Monday said that he will write the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Presidential Communications …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":191167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}