Korean consulate to open in Cebu

CEBU, Philippines — Recognizing Cebuanos kindness to their constituents, the Republic of Korea will open a consular office in Cebu starting on March 17.

Korean Consul General Lee Ki-seog, in a press conference, said that those who want to process their visa can do it here in Cebu.

“We can issue visa in Cebu and there is no need for them to go to Manila. It is convenient and time-saving,” said Lee.

The consulate in Cebu has its own jurisdiction on the consular affairs over the entire Visayas which include Cebu, Iloilo, Bohol and Boracay. These areas are most visited by Koreans in the country. In fact, most of them also reside in these places.

The necessity of establishing the Korean Consulate has been consistently raised since there are many Korean residents in these areas and more than 400,000 Korean tourists are visiting the Visayas regions each year.

“The Philippine government has pushed ahead to establish the Korean Consulate in Cebu for the facilitation of issuing the visa for Filipinos and other consular services,” a statement read.

The Korean consulate is also planning to provide general consular services such as managing the passports, notarization, issuing visa for Filipinos and coping with Korean-related incidents or accidents rapidly and efficiently.

When asked why Koreans love to come to Cebu, the consul general said it is because there are eight direct flights from Cebu to Korea daily.

Aside from the daily international flights, the diplomat said the beaches in Cebu are awesome, the friendly and hospitable Cebuanos and the delicious food.

In Cebu, there are around 35,00O Koreans and it saddened the diplomat to hear bad news about his own people committing various offenses here. —FPL (FREEMAN)