13 March 2013 – The Philippine Embassy in Madrid held its 2nd Policy Briefing for Philippine Honorary Consuls under its jurisdiction on February 22 in Madrid.
The Embassy has a total of seven (7) Honorary Consulates under its jurisdiction – Andorra, Barcelona, Cadiz, Galicia, Palma de Mallorca, Sevilla and Valencia.
The following Honorary Consuls were present in the briefing: Consul, ad honorem (a.h.) to Andorra, Mr. Hans Peter Holbach; Consul General, a.h. to Barcelona, Mr. Jordi Puig Roches; Consul General, a.h. to Palma de Mallorca, Mr. Juán Torrente Blanch, and Consul General, a.h. to Seville José Ignacio Bidon.
The policy briefing provided the Honorary Consuls updates on the different consular and fiscal processes; political and economic priorities and efforts of the Philippines; services offered by Philippine Overseas Labor Office and Overseas Workers Welfare Office.
For this year´s edition, a briefing on security matters was included in the agenda to take advantage of the presence of the office of the Philippine Defense Attaché which was established in Madrid in 2012.
The first Honorary Consul policy briefing was held on 15 June 2011 in Madrid. END