Malacanang assured that the closing down of the country’s Consular offices in selected countries, as determined by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), will not affect the Philippines’ diplomatic relationship with them citing the Aquino government's austerity measures and low activity of these offices as the basic fundamental reasons.
“Wala namang magiging effect, closing down of Consular offices is internal to us, so there is no effect on them (concerned countries), as long as we have presence there…we have diplomatic relations. The diplomatic relations is not diminished by the cutting down of Consular offices in their countries,” Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said on Tuesday.
Lacierda made it clear that despite the closure of the Consular offices, the government will still prioritize its efforts of attending to the Overseas Filipino Workers’ (OFW’s) concerns in foreign lands because "we're going to have more mobile consular officials" in areas where there are more Filipino overseas workers.
“The DFA decided to close some of the embassies because of budgetary constraints… to help relieve the concerns of the OFWs, the DFA has set up mobile Consular officials, so that’s one way of addressing the concerns of the OFWs at the same time also addressing the concerns of the budget for the DFA,” Lacierda said.
“So, we’re going to have more mobile Consular officials, for instance in areas where feeling nila maraming mga Filipinos, doon magkakaroon tayo ng presence ng mga Consular officials. We will have to ask the DFA kung ano ang basis nila sa pagsasara ng mga embassies… the basic reason is walang masyadong activity doon,”” he added.
The DFA bared recently that ten foreign service posts will be closed down this year, which include Philippine Consular offices in Koror in Palau; Caracas in Venezuela; Barcelona in Spain; Stockholm in Sweden; in Dublin, Ireland; Frankfurt, Germany; Havana, Cuba; Saipan; Bucharest, Romania and Helsinki in Finland.
No comments:
Post a Comment