Return suspected fake PHL passports to DFA, Pinoys urged


PATRICIA DENISE CHIU, GMA NEWS 

 

In an email to GMA News Online on Friday, Assistant Secretary Jaime Victor Ledda of the Office of Consular Affairs of the DFA, said, "If a person has reason to believe that a passport is fake, he or she is kindly requested to bring the matter to the immediate attention of the Office of the Assistant Secretary at the DFA Office of Consular Affairs."

GMA News Online asked Ledda about the fake passports issue after media reports came out that fugitive ex-Palawan Governor Joel Reyes used a tampered passport to flee the country earlier this month.
 
Reyes is wanted for the murder of Palawan-based environmentalist and broadcaster Gerardo "Gerry" Ortega in Puerto Princesa early last year.
 
Fugitives and fake passports

Asked if there were other cases where fugitives used fake passports to leave the Philippines, Ledda said, "Since the implementation of the e-Passport system in 2009, the case of former Palawan Governor Joel Reyes appears to be the first one where a fugitive from justice used a tampered e-passport in leaving the country."
 
Ledda said the DFA is conducting an investigation on how Reyes obtained a fake passport.

"We have reason to believe that, on his reported departure for Vietnam on March 18, 2012, former Governor Reyes used the identity of Joseph Lim Pe, whose passport was tampered with the substitution of the latter’s photo on the passport data page with that of the former Palawan Governor."

"The DFA has already cancelled the passport of Joseph Lim Pe and that of former Governor Reyes," Ledda explained.
 
Asked if the DFA already has leads on who issued the fake passport to Reyes, Ledda said, "In the conduct of its probe on the case, the Department of Foreign Affairs is closely looking into the processing and issuance of the e-passport to Joseph Lim Pe and the people who may have been involved." - VVP, GMA News
 

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