After the machine-readable passport, now comes the e-passport

MANILA, Philippines — If you are the owner of a manually scripted passport (green or brown) that is still valid beyond 2008, don’t rush into replacing it with a machine-readable passport. Reason: The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is scheduled to issue “electronic passports" to the public starting December. According to the DFA, the “e-passport" is more advanced than the machine-readable passport in that it has a 64-kilobyte microchip where the security features and personal data of the holder are stored, making it difficult for syndicates to commit passport fraud. In mid-2007, the DFA main office and the more than 40 Philippine embassies and consulates have issued 1.4 million machine readable passports. The DFA said the newer version of the Philippine passport aims to combat fraud and tampering of the travel document. Consular Affairs Assistant Secretary Domingo Lucenario said the e-passports will be supplied by the French company Francois Charles Oberthur, which bested 14 other companies in a bidding conducted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on June 26. Consular Affairs Assistant Secretary Domingo Lucenario on Friday said Francois is the supplier of e-passports in Belgium, touted as the first country to comply with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standard. Sixty other countries have reportedly started issuing e-passports in compliance with the new global standard. Lucenario said e-passports will first be issued in October to diplomats and government officials but it will be available to the public only in December. Francois won the contract with a bid of P859.7 million, well below the approved budget cost of P970.5 million, the DFA said. GMANews.TV