MOKPO, 29 August 2014 – An 11-member consular team from the Philippine Embassy in Seoul conducted its first ever consular outreach mission in Korea’s southwestern city of Mokpo, 310km south of Seoul, for two days beginning Friday, 29 August 2014.

The mission, led by First Secretary and Consul Roderico C. Atienza, assisted 115 Filipinos at the Mokpo Catholic Center on consular services ranging from the renewal of passports, report of births, notarial acts, to dual citizenship applications, and police clearance. Local arrangements were made by the Mokpo Filipino Organization (MFO). “We really appreciate the Embassy’s coming over from Seoul to help us update our official documents,” said long-time Mokpo resident and MFO President Sonia Ramos-Kim, expressing hope that the initial visit by the consular team will lead to a formal recognition by the Embassy of their regional Filipino community organization. Social Welfare Attaché Lucita J. Villanueva, only one of eight such officers in Philippine diplomatic missions around the world, held one-on-one family counseling sessions with Filipino women married to Korean men, some of whom have taken Korean nationality and have been residing in Korea for as many as 20 years. Luzviminda Tumaliuian, Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA) staff in Seoul, joined the team to collect or process the renewal of OWWA memberships and issue overseas employment certificates (OEC). Leover Loyola, overseas representative officer in Korea for government-owned LandBank, helped in opening new bank accounts. Some 30 Filipinos also took advantage of the Overseas Voters’ Registration (OVR) staff to apply as a new voter or to transfer their registration from their voting precinct in the Philippines to Korea. Apart from Filipinos living and working in Mokpo, smaller groups made the drive or the ferry ride from the larger Gwangju metropolitan city and the surrounding counties of Sinan, Haenam, Yeongam, Jindo, and Wando. As of 2013, there were 1,403 Filipinos known to be residing in South Jeolla Province, where Mokpo is located. On the whole, Filipinos in Mokpo and the surrounding areas are medium-term factory staff working in the shipbuilding industry or are living long-term in Korea married to Korean men. Mokpo, which has a population of 247,442, relies heavily on the Daebul industrial complex and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries located near Yeongam. The imports of merchandise support the local economy of Mokpo as they pass through its harbor.