Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. tweeted another bombshell this morning when he said that the contractor formerly in charge of printing Philippine passports did not run away with people’s data after all, contrary to what he previously said.
“Data is not run-away-able but made inaccessible. Access denied. But APO assured me [that] they were able to access [the data] 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,” Locsin wrote.
Data is not run-away-able but made inaccessible. Access denied. But 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. https://t.co/ln6blIwbIB
— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) January 15, 2019
The “APO” he was referring to is the contractor now in charge of printing Philippine passports. According to Locsin, APO was able to access the data from the ex-contractor, French company Oberthur Technologies, but found them unusable because the files are corrupted.
APO is a company under the Presidential Communications Office.
He also said that people should be able to renew their passports without having to provide their birth certificates again, contradicting previous instructions from the DFA.
The DFA has been in hot water ever since the very social media-active Locsin tweeted last week that their previous contractor “made off” with data.
Because previous contractor got pissed when terminated it made off with data. We did nothing about it or couldn't because we were in the wrong. It won't happen again. Passports pose national security issues and cannot be kept back by private entities. Data belongs to the state. https://t.co/8vsN96jqij
— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) January 8, 2019
This sparked national concern, with the Philippine police chief tagging it as a national security threat and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesperson calling it a “grave and serious” matter.
Former DFA Secretary Perfecto Yasay, however, said in a TV interview with ANC’s Headstart yesterday that Locsin was “misinformed” about the data breach and that he does not believe Oberthur took the data.
Locsin’s latest statement contradicts what an APO executive claimed yesterday who said that all passport data was intact.
“All data have been retrieved when the equipment was turned over. It was all restored,” APO chairperson Michael Dalumpines told reporters, according to GMA News. “We can access everything.”
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