07 July 2016 - The Philippine Embassy in Rome, in coordination with the Associazione Communita Fillipina (ACF) based in Messina, Sicily, held a consular outreach in Messina from July 02 to 03 to service the needs of more than 500 Filipino workers in the area and those coming from the neighboring cities of Catania, Cosenza, Calabria, and Palermo.

The outreach team processed a total of 457 applications for ePassports, facilitated a total of 30 Reports of Birth and Marriage, and administered the oath of allegiance to eight    former Filipinos who reacquired their Philippine citizenship.

The Embassy’s Labor officials serviced 272 applications for membership in Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and gave an orientation to 67 other Filipino workers on the Balik Manggagawa (BM) online. Social Security System (SSS) and Pag-IBIG representatives received a total of 192 applications for membership.

There are about 9,500 Filipino nationals in the two regions of Calabria and Sicily, representing 5.5 percent of the estimated 170,000 Filipinos all over Italy. The outreach activity is regularly held by the Philippine Embassy to bring its consular services closer to the Filipino community. END