Friday, May 16, 2008 Pangan: Disturbing By Benjie R. Pangan At Close Range
TAMPER-prone machine-readable passports. Not tamper-proof after all.
These may be my reactions after reading in a broadsheet that the much-touted machine readable passport (MRP) can be tampered similar to the green-colored ones which can be easily be tampered via the baklas-style?
If this was true, then the integrity of the new toast of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) will be at risk.
From the report, I learned that the source of the printing materials and the forms has already been penetrated by a syndicate that reportedly uses sophisticated tools to make passports passed off as genuine.
Talk about genuine, tamper-proof documents. It is an open secret that even security papers (Secpa) are filched by syndicate members (and insiders, for that matter) who then sell them to gullible clients needing National Statistics Office (NSO) certificates and land titles.
Since the forms are genuine as they came from the inventories of government offices, these can deceive even the most discerning eye and therefore command high prices.
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Courtesy lanes. These are supposed to be, yes, convenient places where applicants or clients go to in order to avoid long lines. One such courtesy lane is available at the Regional Consular Office, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Clark Field.
Going by its name, the courtesy lane affords the passport applicants convenience by not joining lines outside the processing area.
For the privilege, the applicants are charged P750.00, as compared to the P500.00 assessed those who waited for their turn in the long, long lines.
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Liquidation reports. Where are the liquidation reports promised by Messrs. Jun Magbalot and Mabalacat Fiesta Executive Committee chairman Deng Pangilinan, respectively? What keeps them adamant to make their reports public, if they had not done so yet?
Both claim to be exponents of transparency and accountability, so let's see if they have complied with their promises and claims.
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Tollways vice president Benigno "Boboy" Valles is, as I have written last time, responsive and sensitive to written reports. He has set a meeting for me and the person manning the Dolores, Mabalacat operations center of the SCTEx.
The latter previously does not want to entertain job applicants referred to his office by Peso Mabalacat, saying he does not know or recognize the local Peso head, thus giving undue disadvantage to the referred job seekers.
Let us see some improvement in the public relations skills of the man I am referring to.
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Is there such a college? Is it true that the soon-to-open Mabalacat College is in the middle of an unimproved, even "forested" area? Would the site, which is far from the McArthur Highway, be safe for young and uninitiated freshmen who, as of latest count, number only 38? Showing inadequate support from the local government, the two-storey building which will house the incoming students reportedly has no commendable facilities conducive to learning. No wonder that there are only a few enrollees.
What now, Dr. Leonardo Canlas, sir?
And to think some officials have bragged about its inception as a welcome development for poor but deserving students of the town. Is it being given priority or the least concern?
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Nothing to show? After seven months in office, the barangay officials have no noteworthy projects or undertakings to show to their constituents. Even the LGU officials have zero output in their report cards and they have been at their posts for almost a year now.
Cannot the ineffective ones be recalled, first, via the constitutionally mandated preparatory recall assembly? Your move, gentlemen.
In Barangay Dau, particularly, its elected officials have virtually nothing to show as their accomplishments, except for the paving of an obscure street in Homesite and the irrelevant Binibining Dau pageant.
Other streets in the area are either flooded or as dirty as garbage sites, like Ubas Street. So what do the people expect from their elected officials. Nothing, nada, zilch, wala.
Where are their promises then? I remember a wise quote: If I am duped once, I am a fool, but if I am fooled more than once, I am stupid. Where do the voters of Mabalacat belong?
