Philippine consular mission wraps up 5-day outreach

The Philippine Consulate General in Guam facilitated documents for hundreds of Filipinos last week during their five-day consular outreach at the Pedro P. Tenorio Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe from Jan. 20 to 24.

United Filipino Organizations officials and members volunteered their help during the Philippine Consulate General in Guam’s mobile consular services last week at the Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe. (Dennis B. Chan)

The consulate general processed 537 passports, provided notarial services for 83 individuals, extended 12 passports, documented 17 reports of birth, six reports of marriage, and facilitated 58 employment contracts, among other things, as of 4pm last Saturday. The services ended at 5pm.

Their next mobile service is slated this March. The consulate general plans to double their mobile consular services this year to six, holding one every other month.

Last year they processed around 1,400 passports. They project to process at least 3,100 passports—more than double—from last year.

Consul Mark Francis Hamoy said the services were “smoother” this time as people have gotten more familiar with “how the system works.”

“We pre-encode their date before we came here. In the past, we used to do it on a walk-in basis. For example, if we used to do 56 passports per day, now we are doing 120 a day,” he said.

He hopes this will help alleviate the absence of a consulate on island, but added that fellow nationals should be “just as diligent in remembering when to renew their passports.”

“They have to make sure to register to process their renewals 12-18 months before the expiration dates of their passports,” he said.

He said according to the USCIS in Guam, one’s passport should be “valid for allowed stay” whenever one processes any document.

Hamoy described as “still speculative” any talks of reopening a consulate general on Saipan as a new Philippine administration is set to come in next year.

“It’s better to wait how the new administration decides. Once it becomes clear there is no decision to reopen [an office on] Saipan, then we’ll explore other options including possibly that scenario where we set up a satellite office [here],” he said.

Right now, the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C. is working with the U.S. State Department to clear an “honorary consul” for the CNMI, according to Hamoy.

While this honorary consul, Eli Arago, may not be able to process passports, this will give the consulate general “a recognized representative on the ground,” he said.

This, he said, will help their office look at the idea of how they can provide trained consular staff on a more regular basis.

Hamoy would like to remind fellow nationals to always keep their papers in order, as the basis of their stay on island is their passport.

“That should be your priority,” he said.