24 April 2006, New York, New York – Consul General Cecilia B. Rebong of the Philippine Consulate General in New York, USA reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that the Consulate General will be conducting a series of registration of overseas absentee voters (OAV) for the Filipino crew members of luxury cruise ships as it completed a mobile OAV registration for the Filipino seafarers aboard MS Noordam, a 1,918 passenger ship on port call at its New York City homeport on 15 April 2006.

Consul General Rebong said the Consular Team, headed by Deputy Consul General Melita Sta. Maria-Thomeczek,  registered as overseas voters 123 Filipino crew members of the cruise ship.   Noordam’s Hotel Manager, Mr. Stan Kuppens, earlier met the members of the OAV Team at New York City’s Passenger Ship Terminal and brought them on board the ship to meet the Filipino crew led by Mr. Ronald Lacson, Chairman of the association of Filipino employees of the vessel.  The Indonesian and Filipino employees have their own individual organizations on board the ship.

Mr. Lacson thanked the OAV Team for taking the time to visit the vessel to register the Filipino crew.   He stated that they would not otherwise have had the opportunity to make the trip to the Consulate to register on account of the short port call and the crew’s busy schedule.  The 5-star cruise ship, which operates like a luxury hotel, had disembarked passengers that morning and was preparing to receive a new set of passengers for the afternoon sail to the Caribbean.

The Filipino crew who registered came from all areas of operation of the vessel – Housekeeping, Engineering, Food and Beverage, Guest Relations – all happily and patiently waited in line exchanging jokes while waiting for their turn at the biometric capturing machine.  True to their hard-working nature, the Filipino crew and service staff, immediately attended to their work assignments after registration to prepare for the new passengers and the cruise ship’s departure by 4:00 pm.

Taking note of the large Filipino crew and service staff personnel on board cruise ships which dock at New York City Ports, Consul General Cecilia Rebong has requested Holland America Lines to allow the registration of its Filipino employees during the New York City port calls of its cruise ships.  The company, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Carnival Corporation (the largest cruise company in the world), readily and graciously gave permission to the Consulate General to conduct OAV registration during the port calls of its cruise ships MS Noordam on 15 April 2006, MS Prinsendam on 24 April 2006, MS Maasdam on 4 May 2006 and MS Amsterdam on 9 May 2006. END