DFA: RP To Open Shanghai Consulate

The first step in the opening of a new consulate which President Arroyo pledged to Filipino expatriates in Shanghai, China commences this week with a simple exchange of diplomatic notes during the President’s state visit to China from today up to the 31st.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Lauro Baja said yesterday the exchange of notes will take place in Beijing during the President’s state visit but will dispense with any ceremony.

"It will be a minister-to-minister exchange of notes and there will be no ceremonies for that," said Baja, the state visit delegation’s chief foreign minister in place of Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. who will be government caretaker during the state visit.

The foreign office had wanted to open the Shanghai consulate during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ summit last week but it had not yet determined the consulate’s location.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Franklin Ebdalin said the consulate was being established in compliance with Mrs. Arroyo’s order during a get-together with Filipino expats on Oct. 22 during the APEC summit.

The Chief Executive made the announcement herself when some 250 of the 1,5000 Filipino expats in Shanghai braved the summit’s tight security to see her. The government had to ask the Chinese government for a special permit for the meeting.

She said opening a consulate would be the least the government could do for overseas Filipinos workers who help shore up the economy during difficult times by remitting dollars to their loved ones in the country.

Mrs. Arroyo noted each of the 1,500 Filipinos in Shanghai remits at least $1,000 every year, or a total $1.5 million, and they deserve direct attention in Shanghai instead of having to go to Beijing for ordinary consular services.

Until the President ordered the opening of a regular consulate, Ebdalin said the government had planned to establish an honorary consulate.

He said the foreign office also studied transferring the consulate in Guangzhou to Shanghai but trade officials opposed the plan because trade generated from that industrial city.

"There is a big clamor to put up a big and regular consulate in Shanghai but it would require much budget and there is a lack of money," he said.

Ebdalin said the government would have to spend $5,000 to $8,000 for rentals alone for consular offices and the quarters of consular officials.

However, Mrs. Arroyo decided to open a regular consulate because Shanghai was an important regional economic hub and the government expects actual and potential revenue from Shanghai.

Aside from its Guangzhou office, the Philippines has consulates in Xiamen and Hong Kong plus the embassy in Beijing, China.