18 March 2015 – The Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles sent a team to conduct a three-day consular outreach program in Houston, Texas from February 27 to March 01.

The consular outreach program was done with the cooperation of Philippine Honorary Consul Ethel Mercado and the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce of Texas (PACC Texas), under the leadership of Atty. Gary Ilagan, State President, and Tess Tuazon, Secretary.

The team was led by Vice Consul Rainier Casis, accompanied by Melchora Tagle, Mari Santera Aurea, Ravinald Espiritu, Jerry Vicedor and Edgardo Lim.

Consular services were given to a total of 1,076 Filipino nationals during the three-day outreach program, the breakdown of which is as follows:

The Consulate’s recent implementation of a “NO WALK-IN” policy has led to reduced processing time for consular services to less than 10 minutes per applicant.  During the Houston Consular Outreach, the rate of no-show applicants was at the lowest so far, at less than 5%.

The consular outreach program is a regular activity of the Consulate to bring its various services closer to its constituents residing in areas within its jurisdiction. The Houston Consular Outreach is the third such activity done by the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles for 2015. END