DUBAI: Philippine Consul General Paul Raymund Cortes has presented Monday, August 15, the new Philippine e-passport with layers of UV prints for security purposes. Each page of the “highly secured” passport also features the country’s famous symbols and landmarks.
In a press briefing, Cortes said the new passport has been designed with “visually striking” features, adding that it is one of the “most secure passports” in the world.
“We tried to come with new features to make the passport that is, as one of you said, “untamperable”; as one that cannot be duplicated or faked thereby increases the respect for the Filipino passport as a an identity source of whoever is bearing it,” said Cortes to the members of the media.
The new passport also contains the complete verse of the Philippine national anthem and is considered to be the most beautiful passports available in the world so far, according to Consul Ferdinand Flores.
“The most visually striking and they say it’s the most secured passport available to us. So we can say to the (Filipinos) that they should be very, very proud of their new passports,” said Flores.
“History geeks would love the new passport because we have a lot of featured symbols of the Philippines inside like the Philippine eagle of Davao City, the Manunggul jar of Palawan, the Malacanang palace, and the rice terraces. You’d really love going through the pages, especially if you see the UV prints,” he added.
Separately, the consul general has stressed that the travel document is a property of the Republic of the Philippines and must be handled with extra care and with utmost respect. He also reiterated that passports should not serve as loan collateral like many Filipinos in the UAE do.
“We’d like to stress also that this is the property of the Republic of the Philippines. If needed to be surrendered, it must be surrendered to an appropriate government officials and representatives. That is why we call on our people to hold on to their passports. Do not give your passports to anybody especially to loan sharks as collateral just because you want to get some money. They do not own your identity. They do not own your person even if you owe them money. Give the passport a little bit more respect for what it represents,” Cortes said emphatically.
Produced by Apo Production Unit, Inc. in Lima, Batangas, the first batch of the e-passports is due to arrive in Dubai in the next 10 days.
The consulate will make a special announcement of the first Filipino in Dubai and the Northern Emirates to receive his or her new e-passport.
Photo Credit: Marlon of UNTV
