20 September 2013 – A team from the Philippine Embassy in Berlin, led by Philippine Ambassador to Germany Maria Cleofe R. Natividad, visited Essen on September 14 to provide mobile consular services to Filipinos in the German industrial region called the Ruhrgebiet. 

The mobile outreach was strongly supported by the Philippine Consulate in Essen under the leadership of Honorary Consul Heinz-Peter Heidrich.  Consul Heidrich made available the multi-purpose hall of the Bank im Bistum Essen, of which he is the CEO, for the purpose of holding the one-day outreach.  The outreach started at 8:30 a.m. and ended at around 8:00 p.m. and served clients who came from as far as Frankfurt and Stuttgart to the south and Bremen to the north.

The outreach team was able to provide a total of 215 consular services, of which around 185 were e-passport applications.  The team from Berlin included Minister Mardomel Celo D. Melicor as signing officer and encoder, Ms. Generosa Balocating as collecting officer, Ms. Melinda Hernais as processor and encoder, Ms. Nelma Casas, assistant and encoder, and Mr. Armand Mahinay, driver and processor.  Honorary Vice Consul Milagros Wandelt of PHC Essen provided full support for queue maintenance, processing and physical arrangements.

Honorary Consul Heidrich witnessed the delivery of consular services and saw to it that the consular outreach proceeded despite the swelling of the queue towards late morning and into the late afternoon.  The team worked with hardly any breaks because the bank’s premises had to be closed for security reasons by 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays.  Consul Heidrich extended the use of the bank’s multi-purpose hall until 8:00 p.m. so that all consular clients who came to Essen were served, and not a single one was turned back who stayed on into the evening.  The venue was very near the Essen Central Train Station, making it very accessible to those who came by train.

Rev. Dennis Solon from Cebu City and his family were among the last clients to be served.  “I am very glad that we do not need to go to Berlin to renew our passports,” he said. 

“This is a great help to us because in a few minutes we are back home in Wuppertal taking the train, and I hope the Embassy will hold outreaches in Essen more often,” Rev. Solon added.

Rev. Solon is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, and is finishing his doctorate in theology of the New Testament at the University of Heidelberg with the support of the United Evangelical Mission in Wuppertal. After graduation, he will return to the Divinity School of Silliman University in Dumaguete City where he is a member of the faculty. END