Philippine consulate ready for expected influx of expats Sunday

System in place to serve people requiring consular services, officials say

Dubai: Philippine consular officials are expecting an influx of Filipino expatriates from Dubai and the northern emirates as they resume operations at their new premises opening Sunday.

"Because of the week-long holiday, we are expecting a definite increase in the volume of Filipino expatriates who will require our services on Sunday," Consul General Benito Valeriano said. "We are prepared for that," he added.

Consular services such as releasing of electronic passports, notarial services, and processing of birth, marriage and death certificates will resume today.

Labour Attache Amilbahar Amilasan told Gulf News that they are ready for the influx of people at their new office in Al Ghusais. "We have a system in place to accommodate and serve our compatriots," he said. The two-storey Philippine Overseas Labour Office (Polo) houses four other government agencies.

 

Room 1 and Hall 2 are assigned for the processing of Overseas Employment Certificates (OEC) and housing loans from the state shelter financing agency, Pag-IBIG respectively. All overseas Filipino workers are required to file OECs to help ensure that they are properly documented and protected.

Contracts and other labour-related concerns will be processed in Hall 3.

The new Polo-Owwa office, located on Beirut Street, Community 234, Al Ghusais, is more accessible to the commuting public. Those who use public transport can take Bus 13, 32C, and 33 to reach the consulate.

Better off

With the opening of Dubai Metro's Green Line on September 9, commuters can go by train to Al Twar Centre station. Feeder buses are readily available from there.

Those riding the Metro's Red Line can go to the Rashidiya station and take a taxi from there for Dh15 or less.

"We are much better off now than before. We have room provisions for our training programmes and we can assign prayer rooms," Amilasan said.

"We now have functioning air-conditioning system, proper plumbing, and regular water supply," Assistant Labour Attache Venus Abad said.

This directly benefits the 57 Filipinos, including three toddlers and an infant, under the care of the Filipino Workers Resource Centre (FWRC), a halfway house for distressed Filipinos which operates in various countries, including the UAE

Source: Gulf News