In September last year, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) started issuing Machine Readable Passports (MRP). However, pending the resolution of some logistical and technical problems, embassies and consular offices abroad were allowed to continue issuing the old green passport.

For some reason, the Philippine Embassy in Tokyo decided, without authority from the DFA, to print a bar code on each of the old passports stocked in the chancery to make them appear machine readable and issued them to unwitting applicants, some 900 of them.

Consequently, those who traveled with the tampered passports went through the unpleasant experience of being interrogated at airports in both Tokyo and Manila because the passports they were using which were supposed to be machine readable weren’t.

Soon after the discovery of the anomaly, Foreign Secretary Alberto G. Romulo reportedly angrily dispatched a team to Tokyo to conduct an investigation.

I have not seen the team’s report but this much I was able to piece together from various sources:

The officer tasked with safekeeping the embassy’s stock of blank passports had them printed with a bar code designed by him, obviously to make the passports look like MRPs. This officer is very close to and is a trusted confidante of the head of the post, but it is unclear whether or not he had the latter’s permission for the alteration. He has also been designated by the head of post as the administrative officer, a very pivotal position in running the internal affairs of the embassy. He is intensely disliked by nearly every staff member in the Embassy because of his propensity to throw his weight around.

The junior officer in charge of signing passports (he had nothing to do at all with the tampering of the blank passports) obviously had no choice but to sign and issue the tampered passports. He must have been assured by the one who did the tampering that it was all right. His fault is that he did not have the good sense or the gumption to insist on first seeking clearance from Manila.

Upon recommendation of the investigating team, Secretary Romulo ordered the immediate recall to the Home Office of these two erring officers pending, I suppose, the filing of charges against them.

It was also decided to have all the tampered passports issued retrieved. One can only imagine the difficulty of tracing everyone concerned. Many of them do not have permanent addresses in Japan.

Another problem is the cost involved in retrieving the passports and sending new ones. Safe but expensive mailing mode would have to be resorted to. Fortunately for the tampered passport holders, the two officers concerned were directed to bear such costs as part of their (initial?) punishment. I am informed that about half of the passports have been retrieved so far. But what happens when these two officers leave Tokyo? They are due back in Manila this week.

What befuddles me about this whole matter is that when I asked each one of my sources what action has been taken or is being taken against the head of post, they said none. They said his excuse is that he was not in Tokyo when the tampered passports were issued.

And the charge d’affaires? None either.

Good heavens! Whatever happened to the principle of command responsibility?

His absence from the post does not exonerate the head from responsibility for the transgression. He, of all people, should know that.

In Japan, the slightest hint of wrongdoing or scandal is enough to make the head of an organization, public or private, resign. In some cases, they even decide to resign from life itself. Obviously, despite being married to a Japanese national and nearly half a lifetime of exposure to and perfecting his knowledge of Japanese culture, this noble trait has not rubbed off on him. Pity.

The big question now is what Secretary Romulo will do. Will he, like the head of post concerned, do a Pontius Pilate and shirk his command responsibility?

***

Will there be no end to the Arroyo regime’s feeble attempts at hoodwinking the Filipino people to perpetuate itself in power via Charter change?

Take the case of its latest gambit. Ms. Arroyo’s adviser on the peace process Jesus Dureza said federalism, which requires constitutional amendment, is necessary to revive the stalled negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Unfortunately for Ms. Arroyo, no less than her staunch allies Senators Joker Arroyo and Richard Gordon and Congressman Edcel Lagman shot down Dureza’s proposal and expressed opposition in no uncertain terms to charter change at this time.

Senator Arroyo said: "One does not need a magnifying glass to detect the ultimate objective and that is, a move to re-open the campaign to amend the Constitution. In the vulgar vernacular, it’s a ‘palusot.’ That must not happen."

Gordon said charter change at this time will be very divisive. He said it should be tackled only in 2010.

Lagman, on the other hand, said Congress should devote itself to enacting legislation rather than busying itself with charter change.

"It’s a waste of time," he said.

I needn’t cite here what opposition personalities had to say about the "palusot." The people know because they feel the same way.

***

Another unending story that keeps repeating itself is the insatiable greed of the majority of our congressmen for money.

The latest episode in this heartrending story is the expose‘ of former Senate President Franklin Drilon that the House padded its pork barrel by P13.5 billion in the 2008 national budget.

Ano ba kayo?!

***

US Congressman Adam Smith last week called on Ms. Arroyo. He was accompanied by Foreign Secretary Romulo and Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro. Also present during the call was US Ambassador Kristie Kenney.

Smith is a member of the US House Committee on Armed Services and chairs its subcommittee on terrorism, unconventional threats and capabilities.

Last week, I made mention of the presence of US military forward bases in the country which is in violation of the Constitution. I hope Ms. Arroyo and her officials raised the matter with Smith.

But that is not the reason I touch on Smith’s visit. I am almost sure Arroyo authorized the presence of those forward bases. Ergo, she and her officials would not have found it necessary to raise it with Smith.

What I want to dwell on is the treatment accorded to Smith by our government. Can you imagine one of our congressmen with an equivalent position in our House being received by the President of the United States, accompanied by his secretaries of state and defense? He most probably will not even rate a call on the US Speaker of the House or the US secretaries of State or Defense. Hell, he probably won’t even rate a call on the Assistant Secretary for Asia and Pacific Affairs of the State or Defense departments.

It is alright to extend courtesies to a visiting US government official, but please, please, let us not go overboard in doing so. Such a subservient attitude does not earn us goodwill or the respect of the Americans and others. On the contrary, such an attitude earns us nothing but condescension and contempt.

There is such a thing as extending "appropriate" courtesies. The DFA professionals know whereof I speak. But they, most of the time, are only following instructions.

When I was assistant secretary in the DFA, I received only ambassadors or their charge‘ d’affaires. My deputy and division chiefs received their counterparts. The American and Japanese ambassadors felt it was beneath their dignity to deal with me. That was their problem, not mine. But I must say I couldn’t blame them entirely because they had easy access to the foreign secretary and the head of state no less.

***

Today is the 263rd day of Jonas Burgos’ disappearance.

I cannot understand why, if it has nothing to hide, the military had to ask for reconsideration of the Court of Appeals’ decision to issue a writ of Amparo in favor of Jonas’ mother, Edita. Can you?