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PH consulate on Saipan for 5-day mobile outreach
Voter’s IDs, passports for releasing; passport application ongoing
About 3,500 voter’s identification cards and more than 300 passports of Filipinos on Saipan are being released at the ongoing mobile consular outreach of the Philippine Consulate General at the Pedro P. Tenorio Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe.
Staff of the Philippine Consulate General in Guam and members of the United Filipino Organization distribute about 3,500 voter’s IDs that were sent by the Philippines’ Commission on Election. Voter’s IDs for releasing are for those who registered from 2009 to 2012. (Frauleine S. Villanueva)
Almost 200 IDs have already been released since the mission started last Sunday.
“Before we left for Saipan, the box from [the Philippines’ Commission on Election] arrived. These are the IDs of those who registered from 2009 to 2012,” Consul Edgar Auxilian said.
Auxilian added, however, that they weren’t able to receive the cards of some of those who registered in that period. Many are worried that they won’t be able to vote if they don’t have that ID but Auxilian assured that the voter’s ID is not a requirement prior to voting as long as the voter is registered and is included on the voters’ list.
Passports
Almost 200 passports have also been claimed as of yesterday.
“We really encourage them, those who applied last March, to claim. Otherwise, we will be forced to bring [the passports] back to Guam,” Auxilian said.
The mission is now processing the passport applications of the 600 people who previously applied for new passports during the March mission.
Those pre-encoded e-passport applicants are given their schedule prior to the mission’s arrival so that acquiring their biometrics, photos and other information for the passport will be organized. Some 120 individuals are scheduled each day for the five-day mission that will end on Thursday, May 28.
According to Auxilian, they are also accepting new appointments for passports for their next mission, which will probably be on July. However, they will be reducing their quota to 360 individuals as they will also most likely shorten their next visit to three days.
“We are short on people and July is a busy month for us at the consulate. Some of us will be off-island so we can’t afford to leave the consulate without officers and staff,” Auxilian said.
Aside from members of the Guam consulate, Honorary Consul Eli Arago and members of the United Filipino Organization were also present at the mission.
Other than the passports and voter’s IDs, Filipinos can also ask for authentication, verification and notarization of their documents as well as file updates regarding civil registry like births, deaths or marriages.
