by Juan Claudio S. Castro, PTV New Media
The Philippine ePassport is like a treasure chest excavated from an earthed, ancient town: it may look ordinary, cut-and-dried travel document on the outside, but filled with intricate wonders within. Lo and behold, it is never a no-brainer travel document! Giving birth to one entails a great deal of consideration. From its conception, to manufacturing, down to the packaging for delivery to owners. Who would think that a single booklet of it indeed houses innovative, all-in, lockdown security features yet boasts all-hail-Philippines decor. Thanks to the Asian Productivity Organization Production Unit, Inc. (APO), the government-owned or -controlled corporation that happily shouldered the highly challenging process of producing the ePassport, at par with the leading security printing offices out there, whether local or international. The APO makes sure that global standards are reflected in the ePassport.
The International Civil Aeronautics Organization (ICAO) Doc 9303, the “Machine Readable Travel Document,” is the bible embraced by the APO in the production of the Philippine ePassport. It is a compendium of the standards employed by every country in crafting their passports. It was authored by the ICAO, an international body under the United Nations that sets the terrain on the do’s and don’ts with respect to aviation.
The biometric file formats and communication protocols of the ePassport are in adherence to the ICAO Doc 9303. This includes the embedding of microprocessor chip in the ePassport, where the biometric information in confirming the identity of the holder can be found. The critical details of the holder in said splinter are imprinted on the data page and appear again on the machine readable lines. Palpably, every piece of the ePassport is unique and distinct to one another.
A keen vision of the Philippine ePassport leads to a quick realization of how extensive the artistry enlisted into the travel document. The comeliness abounds, almost spilling off the booklet. The details are a deliberate product of a creative mind. The theme and 2D esthetic features of the booklet—the jaw-dropping sceneries of the Philippines—are all executed by Filipino artist BG Hernandez.
With all those said, it follows that giving birth to a single ePassport requires a series of complex, byzantine steps. The method is intricate, competitive with the leading security printing processes out there. Here are the complex, no-brainer undertakings in the production of the Philippine ePassport.
To produce the state-of-the-art ePassport entails no ordinary materials. From special paper, long-lasting ink, microprocessor chip, and, most importantly, the high-end, avant equipment.
Next, a stack of special paper is placed onto the cartridge, the repository for said papers towards several apparatus. This marks the base printing stage. Each sheet, upon reaching the chamber, is printed with eight visa pages. Each paper is also intercalated with invisible, ultraviolet (UV) ink to add up to the security of the passport as a whole.
Afterwards, the end pages undergo intaglio printing, the second stop of the ePassport generation. During this stage, the pages undergo dry printing. They are also imprinted with the design of the Philippine eagle and green turtle. Intaglio stage likewise houses the whirling off of two enormous rolls of paper towards the printer. One of the rolls is devoted to the printout, and the other is to wiping clean the plate to get it ready for the next printing gig. The embossing of the end pages are also housed here, where the design of said papers are given texture unlike the visa pages.
After the initial printing, the next step comes, the cutting process. The printouts are piled up and cut by the hydraulic-guillotine cutter based on the actual size of the unfolded booklet.
Then comes the quality control on the visa pages. Here, a staff of trained women scrutinizes each sheet manually for dirt and misprinting. A tiny spot on a page results in the shredding of the whole sheet. Also, the UV prints are checked under black light for any irregularities.
The pages are now ready for the folding phase. Each sheet is bended at the middle to resemble a book form. Subsequently, the fold is given a series of holes for stitching. Before they are released to the next platform, the sheets are once again checked by a team to ensure that they are properly arranged.
Once the personnel is done in looking into the formation of the pages, the papers are stitched to pack together the visa pages.
The succeeding step is gluing where the passport covers already bearing the microprocessor chips are appended to the stitched pages using a strong glue. The booklets are then pressed down to augment the attachment of the covers. Thereafter, the excess glues are scrubbed out to prevent the sheets from sticking together.
The front cover of the ePassport is now stamped with the outer labels using gold coat. Said labels are the word “PILIPINAS,” the country’s coat of arms, and the international emblem for biometric passports. The booklets are now folded, with their edges trimmed for excess parts.
The ensuing stop is pre-personalization where the microprocessor chips are activated. Distinct bar codes are likewise stamped on the back cover of each booklet. The perforations are set on the pages through a carbon dioxide laser. The bar code is then compared to the perforation, where the two must match.
The booklets are finally ready for personalization—the incorporation of the personal information of the owner into the passport. The personal information of the holder are imprinted on the data page and repeated in the machine readable lines.
After indicating the details of the owner, the booklets are subjected to quality verification. The physical and security features are scrutinized here vis-à-vis the database. This stage can be compared to the proofreading phase in making a book. If the staffers doing the examination find any irregularities on the product, these will be noted using a pencil on the adjacent page. These are then reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs. As the manufacturing process ends, the finished products are sorted out into two categories, either the ePassports are for regional consular offices or foreign service posts.
The last undertaking in this diligent ePassport generation is the durability test. Samples of passports are pulled out per batch and subjected to a series of examinations that resemble the real-life handling of the travel document by the owner. Said tests, among others, are impact, abrasion, and pocket-bending. All of which are in conformity with the ICAO Doc 9303.
The resulting passport is a durable, secured, well-crafted travel document. The ePassport, the end product of a painstaking process, must be a work of art that can serve as an artifact of the Philippine state’s creativity and commitment to national protection. Anyone who can counterfeit the ePassport must be a sorcerer, capable of forging a wide array of high-stakes documents. So to speak.
