Bureaucracy at the Consulate

We went to the Philippine Consulate in Sydney on September 23 at around 10:00 a.m. to have Consular Authentication of a Special Power of Attorney. It had something to do with the sale of a property in the Philippines.

After paying a fee of $45.00 we were told by the consular staff that we had to return the following business day to obtain the document. We were also told that they only release documents between the hours of 9:00am and 1:00pm. If we miss the 1:00pm deadline, we have to make another trip.

We couldn’t believe what we heard because all that was needed was a consular seal to authenticate our signature in the document that was sent to us from Manila.

We had to take a day off from work just to make the trip from our suburban home in NSW. We couldn’t afford to lose another day’s pay just because of consular bureaucracy. But the staff was adamant. No one was willing to release our document. We were told that was the “official procedure” that had to be followed.

It is our belief that the Philippine Consulate is here in Sydney to provide service to overseas Filipinos. We also pay for those services but for us to be subjected to shabby treatment is definitely unacceptable.

We hope that you find space for our letter in your October publication so that other Filipinos in Sydney will know the quality of service we receive from our compatriots.

Tony and Aida of NSW

Please see below the response received which the Consul General has so graciously sent.—Editor.

Quick Response from the Consul General
Dear Mr. Crescini,

Thank you for verbally informing the undersigned of a letter you have received from two members of the Filipino community in NSW following their visit to the Consulate to have a document authenticated. As you said, the clients were requesting that the authentication procedure be done and the document released on the same day, but the alleged response of the consular staff was that it is the Consulate’s policy to release the authenticated documents on the next working day.

I wish to clarify that for regular applications for notarial and authentication services, the documents are released on the next working day. However, in urgent cases where clients request that the documents be released earlier, the consulate provides an expedite facility. This facility involves payment of an expedite processing fee and the documents are released between 2:30-4:30pm of the same day.

In addition to this expedite facility, the Consulate does accommodate requests for early release of documents due to circumstances that merit consideration. For instance, the Consulate has facilitated applications where a client resides very far from the city and needs to urgently take the train back or where a client needs to get the authenticated document before he/she travels overseas the following day. Applications like these are evaluated on a case-to-case basis and given due consideration where warranted.

Miscommunication between the clients and the consular staff concerned may have transpired that day.

Thank you for bringing this matter to my attention as this also serves as valuable input to the Consulate’s ongoing effort to further improve the delivery of consular services to the public that it serves.

Very truly yours,

Anne Jalando-on Louis
Consul General Sydney