PH consulate operating on Sundays permanently

Filipino consulate

The Philippine Consulate in Macau has heeded the demands of overseas Filipino workers in the region, and confirmed it will regularly operate on Sundays starting from next year.

The consular service which represents Manila’s government informed the public yesterday that together with all its associated agencies, it would continue to provide regular consular services from Sunday to Thursday.

December 18 was supposed to be the last Sunday that the Consulate was open on a weekend as the office was only operating on a three-month trial phase.

The Philippines’ Consul General in Macau, Lilybeth Deapera, briefly replied to the Times to note that the request to operate more regularly was approved by the Philippine’s Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). The reply implied that the embassy initiated operations on Sundays due to public demand.

“Basically, the Home Office approved our recommendation,” she messaged.

Back in August a Filipino migrant group, Migrante Macau, urged the consulate to open on Sundays citing that it was the day on which most migrant workers were able to visit the Consulate due to their work schedules.

The Consulate opened its doors on Sundays a few years ago, but only a few Filipino migrants requested services over the weekend.
A representative from Migrante Macau told the Times yesterday that the group was pleased with the announcement.  “We’re extremely happy because we won this petition. There were some [Filipino] organizations who didn’t support us but we are thankful for the 2,832 signatures that we’ve gathered,” said the association’s chairperson, Emerlina de Lina.

Earlier this year, the migrant group association amassed the signatures from Filipino citizens residing in the MSAR to be filed in a petition letter that was then handed to the Consulate.

“The last time we held dialogues with them, they asked us to just wait but we did not have a definite answer on whether they will regularly open on Sundays,” she said.

According to de Lina, Filipino migrant workers indicated that the service was indeed required on weekends. “The consulate is full of Filipino workers on Sundays. On December 11, they did not know how to accommodate the overflowing number of Filipinos requesting services,” she added.

When questioned about their next move, de Lina noted that the association is currently waiting for the results of the document they sent to Manila via the Consulate requesting a government-run shelter for Filipino migrants.