RESIDENTS OF COTABATO AND COMPOSTELA
VALLEY
EXPRESS APPRECIATION FOR MOBILE PASSPORT
TEAMS
4 December 2003 - Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas F. Ople lauded the DFA Regional Consular Office (RCO) in Davao City for sending two separate teams to Isulan, Cotabato, and Maragusan, Compostela Valley, on 20-21 November 2003 to render mobile passport services in these areas.
“The sending of mobile passport teams to different parts of the country clearly underscores the DFA’s determination to reach out and extend its services to the people in the remote areas,” Ople said. The RCOs in San Fernando, La Union, and Cebu City each recently dispatched similar missions to areas in Pangasinan and Bohol provinces, respectively.
The consular visit to Isulan, Cotabato, where the team was able to issue over 300 passports, timed its arrival with that of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on the occasion of the town’s 50th anniversary. Cotabato Governor Pax Mangudadatu, whose son Soharto Mangudadatu is the current mayor, expressed his gratitude to the group and the DFA for their support to the people of the province and for conducting the first ever mobile passport service there.
The visit to Maragusan, Compostela Valley, on the other hand, was timed with the staging of the 8th Pyagsawitan Festival on 17-25 November 2003 and the town’s own anniversary on 25 November 2003.
The Isulan team was headed by Officer-in-Charge Alimudin S. Eson while the team to Maragusan was led by Ms. Cristina T. Ballerda.
In December 2003, mobile passport service will be undertaken in the following locations: