Migrante International has formally asked President Aquino to recall the appointment of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo for his role in alleged irregularities that resulted in the high cost of e-passports.

Garry Martinez, Migrante International chairman, said Aquino should make a good show in his first State of the Nation Address (SoNA) Monday by recalling Romulo's appointment for what he said were irregularities in the P857-million e-passport contract under the foreign affairs secretary’s watch.

Martinez said Migrante members have been flooding him with e-mails complaining about the inordinate hikes in fees charged to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), including for e-passport application.

“The new e-passport now costs P950 to P1,200 from the previous cost ranging from P550 to P750. E-passport costs have been jacked up to thrice the previous costs in Hong Kong, Australia, Taiwan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Middle East and some parts of Europe. They now cost $6 more than the fee prescribed for e-passports in the Philippines," he said.

Martinez also accused Romulo of scrapping a previous contract for the manufacture of machine-readable passports with BCA International Corp. under dubious circumstances on Dec. 9. 2005.

BCA finished Phase 1 of the contract on Aug. 13, 2001 and a panel from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) recommended acceptance of such completion on June 10, 2002.

Romulo scrapped the contract in spite of the counsel of the DFA panel that this would be “arbitrary” and could not be justified.

Martinez stressed the implementation of the e-passport project has a P1.4-billion allotment under the 2010 national budget even as Romulo also borrowed P530 million for the construction of a four-storey building at the Mall of Asia for the project.

The Migrante leader added that the contract for the supply of laminates for the e-passports was awarded to Hologram Industries, a French company, without bidding.