A mobile consular team of the Philippine Embassy in Wellington successfully rendered a five-day consular services outreach mission in Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand on 23-27 March 2017. Held at the Christchurch Community House, the outreach processed a total of 949 transactions comprising passport renewals/applications, civil registration (reports of births and marriages), notarial services, fingerprinting for National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) forms, and Philippine citizenship retention/re-acquisition application and oath-taking. The mission also gathered a total of 730 overseas voting (OV) registrants.

The Filipino community members in Christchurch, Rangiora, Ashburton, Timaru, Oamaru, Dunedin, Queenstown, Gore, Invercargill and other areas in the South Island greatly appreciated this undertaking as it provided them access to the Philippine Embassy’s services without travelling further to Wellington up in the North Island.

The outreach mission conducted its services with ample facilities of the Christchurch Community House at 301 Tuam Street, as coordinated by Delia Richards of the Philippine Culture, Sports and Services (PCSS). Led by Ms. Richards, the Filipino community volunteers from the PCSS who provided generous support and assistance to the successful mission were Carlos Capinpin, Maricel Malonzo, Benson Malonzo, Domingo Tanggap, Cecilia Tanggap, Mark Roa and Jonathan Da-al.

Details of the succeeding mobile consular missions are posted on the Philippine Embassy website (www.philembassy.org.nz) and on Facebook (Philippine Embassy - Wellington, New Zealand).