Berlin – The Philippine Embassy in Berlin conducted its second consular mobile outreach service at the Kath. Pfarrheim St. Jacobs in Schifferstadt, Rhineland-Palatinate  on 28 March 2015.  The consular team was assisted by the Filipino Community in Schifferstadt near Mannheim and Ludwigshafen.

Bordering the states of North Rhine–Westphalia to the north, Hessen to the east, Baden-Württemberg to the southeast, and Saarland to the southwest, Rhineland Palatinate was an ideal location for servicing Filipinos residing in the major Federal States in the western part of Germany.

A team from the Philippine Embassy in Berlin conducted the one-day outreach, composed of Consul Adrian Cruz, Mr. Ruben Atienza, Mrs. Rowena Adaya Hernandez, Ms. Marie Reyes and Mr. Armand Mahinay. The consular team facilitated 121 passport appications, 17 notarials, 8 certfications, 2 visas and 5 overseas voting registrations.

 

Ambassador Melita S. Sta. Maria-Thomeczek expressed her appreciation to the Filipino Community in Schifferstadt for their invaluable contribution.

Ms. Rohnna Yee-Fath from the Filipino Catholic Community of Schifferstadt finalized arrangements with the Philippine Embassy almost a year before the scheduled outreach.  “With ample time to prepare, the Filipino community from Rhineland Palatinate made sure that there will be a sufficient number of volunteers that can be relied upon to ensure that the registration of applicants was smooth and orderly,” she said.

Since 2013, the Philippine Embassy has been conducting regular outreach missions to different parts of Germany with the help of its Philippine Honorary Consulates and the different Filipino community associations.  The next outreach will take place on 11 April 2015 at the Schweinfurt/Stadthalle with address at Friedrich-Ebert Str 20, 97421 Schweinfurt, Bavaria.

An Embassy team composed of Mr. Adrian Cruz, Mr. Ruben Atienza, Ms. Generosa Balocating, Ms. Lourdes Marie Reyes and Mr. Melchor Francisco proceeded to Hamburg on 29 November 2014 to provide mobile consular services to Filipinos and German nationals alike. The one-day outreach was co-sponsored by the Federation of Filipino Organizations in Northern Germany (FFONG) and was the second outreach to be conducted in Hamburg for 2014.

Near-zero temperatures did not prevent forty two Filipinos from applying for new passports even as some of them took the opportunity to register as overseas voters for the upcoming 2016 Philippine National Elections.  In addition, the Embassy team processed 30 assorted visa, authentication, certification and civil registry reports. The one-day activity was held at the Őkumenische Forum HafenCity, Hamburg.
Chargés d’affaires ad interim Mardomel Celo D. Melicor expressed his thanks to the Filipino Community in Germany for their cooperation and participation in the consular outreaches that took place in different cities in Germany.
“For 2015, we intend to have at least seven consular outreach missions, and we wish to reach out to more Filipinos, which is why for next year we are going to schedule trips to Schweinfurt, Cologne, Essen, Stuttgart, Frankfurt and München.”
Mr. Melicor also thanked the FFONG for their steadfast support of the Embassy mobile consular services, as well as their participation and promotional campaign of a number of important events such as the recent Berlin visit of President Benigno Aquino III, as well as the 2013 visits to Hamburg of Vice President Jejomar Binay, and of SSS President and CEO Emilio S. de Quiros, Jr.