22 September 2015 – The Philippine Consulate General in Vancouver conducted its thirty-fifth Akyat-Barko visit last September 20 on the cruise ship M/S Crown Princess while the ship was docked at the Port of Vancouver.
Consul Rogelio Villanueva, Jr. led the members of the Consulate’s Overseas Voters (OV) mobile team in registering 197 Filipino crew of the Crown Princess many of whom have not voted for more than ten years due to their frequent absence in the Philippines during election time.
The Consulate team was joined for the first time by the crew from the ABS-CBN’s The Filipino Channel (TFC) who took footages of the registration and interviewed several seafarers who availed of the Consulate’s special campaign for the overseas voters registration.
As of September this year, the Philippine Consulate General in Vancouver has already enlisted more than 2,800 Filipino seafarers for the overseas voters registration. Consul General Neil Frank Ferrer expects the number of registered seafarers will reach the 3,000-mark before the cruise season ends. The Consulate has scheduled additional ship visits during weekends to register as many seafarers before the end of the registration period on October 31.
The visit to the Crown Princess and its sister ships from the Princess fleet have been made possible through the active cooperation and assistance from the management of the Princess Cruises. The Princess Cruises along with its parent company Carnival Corporation employ more than 12,000 Filipinos both land and sea-based. END