The bill, which passed, in general, with 187 votes in favor and one against, goes on for discussion in the specialty, where one of the issues for correction is the attribution to former deputies, according to the report justifying the aforementioned bill. , the right to a diplomatic passport.
The Secretary of State for Technical Assurance of the Ministry of the Interior, Carlos Albino, acknowledged “the lapse”, stressing that former presidents of the National Assembly are beneficiaries of this international identification document for diplomatic agents and other entities with this status.
When presenting the proposal, Carlos Albino mentioned that Law No. 22/21, of 18 October - Law on the Angolan Passport and the Entry and Exit Regime for National Citizens defined and delimited the entities entitled to the diplomatic passport.
Carlos Albino highlighted that, at the time of the last adjustment of the aforementioned law, some entities were left without this benefit, which, although they are no longer exercising their functions, enjoy diplomatic status, as they continue to be bound by statutory duties and linked to the courts and services they provided. part.
In the debates, the deputy of the parliamentary bench of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), Manuel Augusto, clarified the importance of the diplomatic passport, stressing that this instrument “cannot be seen as a means of solving personal, individual, specific needs ”.
“We saw here a reference to the fact that we could be in a queue at an embassy, where the solution to this problem must be the diplomatic passport, nothing more wrong, on the other hand, also, the diplomatic passport cannot be seen as another subsidy or material supplement to compensate those who provide a public service”, said deputy Manuel Augusto, who was Minister of Foreign Affairs.
In his intervention, the deputy of the parliamentary group of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), Sampaio Mucanda, considered the proposed amendment unfair, calling for the correction of “this serious error”, including in the range of beneficiaries the magistrates of the Ministry Public and judicial of the first and second instance.
“Because the biggest concern results from the enormous difficulties in obtaining visas, meaning that magistrates have to endure long queues at embassies, consular services, etc., most of the time having to move from their work stations, including of the provinces in which they are located”, he indicated.
According to Manuel Augusto, over time the diplomatic passport in Angola has been used “less carefully”, and the Executive has been progressively seeking to “normalize this situation”, which puts the country's image and credibility into question.
“Without going into too many details, I can say, armed with the authority of the functions I have performed over the last few years, that we became the subject of warnings and countries that said they would not recognize our diplomatic passport and we had the job of explaining why is that our diplomatic passport was proliferated, we explained the context, but we had to start taking measures to normalize this situation”, he said.
Manuel Augusto said that within the framework of the Executive's measures, restrictions on the use of the diplomatic passport began in the military class “which was very expensive due to the context”.
“Our military, our generals, were the first to be subject to measures restricting the use of passports (…), around 2010 [the measures] were applied to the military class”, he stressed.
