12 April 2006 – Consul General Willy C. Gaa of the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles, USA, reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that the Consulate, in cooperation with the Council of Pilipino American Organizations in San Diego, held a consular outreach program in San Diego from 8 – 9 April 2006 to process the renewal of passports, notarization of documents, applications for dual citizenship, and registration of overseas absentee voters.

Consul General Gaa said that while he was in San Diego, he met with Filipino professionals and business leaders of the Filipino American Chamber of Commerce of San Diego and presented the positive gains of the Philippine economy.

At the meeting, the Consul General urged the Filipino American business community to consider investing in the Philippines, noting the model of overseas Chinese and expressing the belief that overseas Filipinos based in the US could also do the same for the Philippines.

On 9 April 2006, Consul General Gaa held a breakfast forum with Filipino civic organizations focused on education, youth and health care.  At the forum organized by the One Vision, One Voice Movement, the Consul General received a donation from the Filipino community of twelve boxes of books on early literacy in mathematics for use of school children in poor rural public schools.

In the afternoon, Consul General Gaa was the Guest Speaker at the Araw ng Kagitingan commemoration event organized by the various town associations of Bataan province and held at the Admiral Baker Field Park.  During the event, the Consul General administered the Oaths of Allegiance of 52 dual citizens whose applications had been processed the previous day.  END