Dubai: The Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi will start offering its services in a new location opposite Mushrif Mall on June 1.
The new compound has a twin villa to be shared between the embassy in one villa and its attached agencies such as the Philippine Overseas Labour Office (Polo), the Social Security System, and the Home Development Mutual Fund. All these agencies used to function under one roof in the past.
“This time one villa will have purely DFA-related [Department of Foreign Affairs] services while the other villa is for the attached agencies. With this, there will be more organised delivery of services in terms of space utilisation,” Grace Princesa, Philippine Ambassador to the UAE, told Gulf News.
Ernesto Refugio, former chairman of Bayanihan Council, an umbrella organisation of Filipino groups in Abu Dhabi, welcomed the move, saying it is needed considering the growing number of Filipinos in the capital. An estimated 200,000 Filipinos live and work in Abu Dhabi.
“The Filipinos in Abu Dhabi have outgrown the embassy. There are more Filipinos now compared to when I first came here 21 years ago,” Refugio told Gulf News.
“It’s high time that the embassy moved to a bigger location where Filipinos can transact their business properly. The move is favourable to all of us since there will be more space for the [delivery of] services.”
Refugio said the old embassy was always cramped with people applying for exit clearances, passports, and notary public services. At the new embassy, exit clearances will be issued at the Polo office while passports and consular documents will be issued in the main chancery.
The new embassy, a two-storey twin villa, is located at W-48, Street No 8, Sector 4 2-23, Plot 51, Al Qubaisat in Abu Dhabi. It will open to the public at 8am on June 1. Timings in the new offices will remain from 8am to 12pm and 1pm to 5pm from Sunday to Thursday.
Princesa said the new location is also more accessible by public transport. Commuters may take Bus 52, 32, 44, and get off opposite Mushrif Mall, where the embassy is within walking distance. Those taking Bus 53 and 34 may alight on 27th Street after turning left from Al Khaleej Al Arabi Street.
Contact information of the new embassy will be announced as soon as everything is finalised.
