PH EMBASSY IN ROME SERVES 1,331 FILIPINOS IN MESSINA AND NEARBY AREAS IN SICILY
18 February 2024, ROME – Overseas Filipinos from different parts of Sicily such as Messina, Catania, Palermo, and Syracuse, Italy were served by the Philippine Embassy in Rome and its partner agencies, which rendered a total of 1,331 consular and other related services during a consular outreach mission held at the historic Sala delle Bandiere del Palazzo Zanca, Via San Camillo 110 98122 Messina, Italy on 17-18 February 2024.
Through the assistance of the Philippine Consulate in Reggio Calabria headed by Consul General Francesco Mortelliti, the consular outreach team, headed by Ambassador Neal Imperial and Consul General Randy B. Arquiza, facilitated passport applications, civil registry, notarization, NBI fingerprinting, consultations on assistance-to-nationals services (report of death, consular mortuary certificates, shipment of remains etc), and overseas voting registration of Filipino nationals. Consul Ma. Claribel Ochoa also administered the oath of allegiance of thirty one (31) overseas Filipinos who applied for the retention of their Philippine citizenship under Republic Act No. 9225 .
The Migrant Workers Office in Rome (MWO-Rome), Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in Rome (OWWA-Rome), Pag-IBIG in Milan (Pag-IBIG-Milan) and Social Security Services in Milan (SSS-Milan) also joined the mission and processed a combined total of 822 transactions. This included a Post Arrival Orientation Seminar (PAOS) attended by 249 participants.
In the sidelines of the consular outreach mission, Ambassador Imperial and Consul General Arquiza met with the local officials of Messina such as Mayor Federico Basile, councilor Enzo Caruso (in charge of Tourism) and councilor Massimo Finocchiaro (in charge of Productive Activities) to discuss possible collaborations to promote business opportunities between Italy and the Philippines.
During the meeting, Mayor Basile highlighted the importance of consular missions and described the Filipino community in Messina as “a hard-working community that respects the rules, characterized by professional skills and cultural traditions that also enrich the area of the Metropolitan City of Messina". Meanwhile, Ambassador Imperial cited the Embassy’s commitment to broaden the range of its collaboration with local institutions for the promotion of cultural and commercial initiatives of the Philippines. Both Ambassador Imperial and Mayor Basile agreed to collaborate towards the further strengthening of the bilateral relations between the two countries.
Sicily is home to over 5,000 Filipinos. Majority of the clients served during the outreach mission were from Messina and Catania.
This is the first consular outreach mission conducted by the Embassy for this year. The mission was made possible by the Office of Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy’s partner agencies. END
