30 March 2015 – The Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco conducted a consular outreach mission in Seattle, Washington from March 20 to 22. This was the first of four planned outreach missions by the Consulate General this year to Seattle, and one of the eight in the State of Washington to include Tacoma, and for the first time this year in Snohomish, Washington.
“The increased number of consular outreach missions that the Consulate General is conducting not only in Seattle and Washington State is part of our desire to reach out and extend services to many of our kababayans in our ten-state jurisdiction,’’ Philippine Consul General Henry S. Bensurto, Jr. stated.
The outreach missions to Seattle were annually organized in partnership with its local host, the Filipino Community of Seattle Inc. The nine-member consular outreach mission, headed by Consul Reginald Bernabe, extended various consular services such as passport, notarials, civil registry, and dual citizenship. The team likewise conducted overseas voter registration for the Philippine National elections in 2016.
Seattle and Washington State are areas under the Consulate General’s ten-state jurisdiction with a large Filipino population. The 2010 US Census indicates that there are 137,083 Filipinos in Washington State, and about 60,148 Filipino in King County where Seattle is located, which explains the large turnout in all outreach missions to Washington.
On the successful conduct of the outreach missions, Consul General Bensurto underscored that “the close cooperation, the spirit of community and volunteerism of our local host organizers, partner community organizations, and their volunteers are vital to the success of our outreach missions, to them I wish to extend our sincere appreciation and gratitude.”
This Seattle outreach mission is the 7th of the 37 outreach missions scheduled this year by the Consulate General. For more information on the schedule of outreach missions of the Consulate General this year, please visit www.philippinessanfrancisco.org. END
