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NEW YORK CONSULATE STEPS UP DELIVERY OF CONSULAR SERVICES TO FIL-AM COMMUNITIES IN NORTHEAST USA

PHILIPPINE CONSULATE - NEWS RELEASE
09 March 2006

New York, NEW YORK --- Consul General to New York, Cecilia Rebong, announced over the weekend that the Consulate General of the Philippines in New York is stepping up the delivery of consular services by organizing complete mobile consular outreach services cum town-hall meetings in practically all of Northeast USA.

Consul General Rebong said the Consulate General will extend consular services at the following dates and venues:

March 19 Ц Jackson Heights (New York City)
April 2 Ц Jersey City (New Jersey)
April 8 Ц Rochester (New York)
April 22 Ц West Haven (Connecticut)
May 13 Ц Manchester (New Hampshire)
July 15 Ц Danbury (Connecticut)
July 29 Ц Philadelphia (Pennsylvania)
August 12 Ц Rhode Island
August 26 Ц Albany (New York)

Outreach consular services were earlier delivered on:

January 15 Ц Woodside, Queens (New York City)
January 22 Ц Brooklyn (New York City)
February 25 Ц Jamaica (New York City)
March 4 Ц Boston (Massachusetts)

The Consul General explained that the outreach program is the Consulate General's way of thanking the Filipino community for their support of various projects that include the campaign by the Philippine Embassy in Washington DC and all the Philippine Consulates General in the U.S. to encourage Fil-Ams across the country to increase their dollar remittances to the Philippines, the Classroom Galing Sa Mamamayang Pilipino Abroad (CGMA) project and fund-raising for the victims of natural disasters to hit the country such as the floods in Quezon province and the landslide in Saint Bernard, Southern Leyte.

Consul General Rebong said that in 2005, Filipinos in America were the top dollar remitters among all OFWs worldwide. On the CGMA project,twenty-six classrooms had been donated as of 1 January 2006 in various areas in the Philippines through contributions made by the Filipino community in the tri-state area.

The Consul General added that the consular outreach services would complement the need to encourage more qualified Filipinos to register as Overseas Absentee Voters under the Overseas Absentee Voting law. Registration for OAV ends on 31 August 2006. Only those who register or who have previously registered as oversee absentee voters will be able to participate in the 2007 senatorial elections.

In previous years, the Consulate General organized mobile consular services at most once a month and in three states per year. This year, the Consulate General has scheduled several such consular outreach services in a month and even allowed a repeat in some states but in different counties. Whereas before the outreach was restricted to far-flung communities, this year several outreach programs have been scheduled even in areas within New York City limits where there are large concentrations of Filipinos. The Consulate General will also be reaching out to a number of Filipino communities it had never serviced before. These include communities in Rochester and Albany in New York, West Haven and Danbury in Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

In all the scheduled consular outreach services, consular officials will meet with members of the community in a town-hall set-up to answer possible questions and at the same time update the community on the latest developments in the Philippines.