INQUIRER file photo of a passport by an Overseas Filipino Worker
MANILA, Philippines — For the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), 2023 is one of its busiest years.
In a report hours before the year ends, the agency said government, through DFA and other government agencies, held 65 bilateral meetings and engaged in 45 political consultations.
On the other hand, DFA processed more than 3 million passports and released over 518,000 apostille certificates.
DFA’s website defines an Apostille as a certificate that authenticates the origin of a public document.
It is issued by a country that is party to the Apostille Convention and it is meant to be used in another country, which is also a party to the Convention.
Among achievements DFA takes pride in also include the issuance of over 190,000 visas this year.
It also filed 60,471 civil registry documents.
It granted 7,346 assistance to Overseas Filipino Workers.
It repatriated of 5,043 Filipinos.
On Sunday, DFA identified the following events it participated in this year:
January
7th PH-Finland political consultations
10th PH-United States bilateral strategic dialogue
March
7th bilateral consultation on South China Sea
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang’s visit
April
5th PH-Argentina bilateral consultation meeting
PH – Azerbaijan political consultations
5th PH-Sweden political consultations
PH welcomes repatriates from Sudan
May
Signing ceremony on Exchange of Notes on Japan’s supplemental loan for MRT Line 3 rehabilitation project
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s visit
PH-Canada bilateral meeting
June
Israeli Foreign Minister’s visit to PH
July
6th PH-Brazil bilateral consultation meeting
125th DFA Day
Portuguese Foreign Minister Joao Gomes Cravinho’s visit
August
6th PH-Chile bilateral consultation meeting
September
43rd ASEAN summit
October
PH-Estonia inaugural political consultation
3rd PH-Georgia political consultation
6th PH-Australia ministerial meeting in Adelaide
November
PH-Japan Exchange of Notes on security assistance and non-project grant aid for the construction equipment of road network development and disaster quick response operations in BARMM
PH-Iran joint consultative meeting on political, economic and cultural cooperation
PH-Czech Republic inaugural political consultations
10th PH-Switzerland political consultations
Foreign Affairs Secretary Manalo welcomes Filipino repatriates from war-torn Gaza
December
Signing of Memorandum of Agreement between PH-Cuba on political consultations
Reopening of Bulwagang Apolinario Mabini