Filipino diplomats in UAE receive award from Duterte

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Filipino diplomats in UAE receive award from Duterte
DFA secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, President Rodrigo Duterte, CG Paul Raymund Cortes and Yasmin Balajadia-Cortes

Dubai - On the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs

by

Angel Tesorero

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Published: Tue 19 Jun 2018, 4:16 PM

Last updated: Tue 19 Jun 2018, 7:06 PM

For their meritorious service to their kababayans (countrymen), two Filipino diplomats in the UAE were conferred special awards by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Manila on Monday.
Paul Raymund Cortes, Philippine consul-general to Dubai and the Northern Emirates, received Gawad Mabini with the rank of Dakilang Kamanong or Grand Cross; while Eduardo Paraan, assistance to nationals officer of the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi, obtained Gawad Mabini with the rank of Kasugo from President Duterte.
The award was named after Philippine hero Apolinario Mabini, who served as the country's first secretary of Foreign Affairs when the DFA was established on June 23, 1898.
The Philippine Consulate in Dubai also received the Best Organisation Award 2017 from the DFA in recognition of its services to more than 400,000 Filipinos in Dubai. 
Speaking to Khaleej Times on Tuesday, Cortes said: "The awards have validated all the efforts that we have made and changes we have instituted since I assumed my post in June 2015. These high-profile awards challenge me more to be even better than I already have been recognised. Now, our goal is to surpass our last year's performance."
At the ceremonies in Manila, Duterte cited Cortes for "addressing a gamut of concerns for more than 400,000 overseas Filipinos under the purview of the Philippine Consulate General in Dubai."
The DFA said the Philippine Consulate, under Cortes, "has advocated innovations and streamlined its procedures to provide efficient, effective and client-centered consular services.  These include the (1) creation of courtesy lane; (2) conduct of a special consular day to address backlogs in the passport appointment system; and (3) implementation of shorter processing time and earlier release dates for notarized documents. In 2017, the post was able to process 71,566 passports and notarised/legalised 57,603 documents." 
Apart from doing regular assistance to nationals (ATN) work, Cortes has also spearheaded public diplomacy campaigns through ATN outreach missions and legal seminars. Last year, the consulate attended to over 6,000 walk-in clients, repatriated 1,269 distressed Filipinos, including 23 medical repatriations and 19 shipment of remains, the DFA added. 
Cortes said: "From the very beginning, our platform was to increase the efficacy and efficiency of our consular services by devising more innovative ways to provide services to the public, forging partnerships with the business community, strengthening our assistance to nationals and boosting cultural diplomacy."
Before serving as the Philippine consul-general in Dubai, Cortes worked as the deputy consul-general at the Philippine Consulate General in Honolulu from 2010-2012. He was also the third secretary and vice consul of the Philippine Embassy in Budapest from 1998 to 2004.
Meanwhile, Paraan was cited by the Philippine president in his capacity as the former acting director of the DFA's Intelligence Service Unit. He represented the DFA in various inter-agency meetings on intelligence, counter-intelligence and security concerns. He also presented a white paper submitted to relevant authorities for the formulation of the intelligence-driven security group framework for international meetings such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the visit of Pope Francis to the Philippines.
Paraan is currently the ATN at Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi, "where he introduced an effective process of mass repatriation and coordinated with concerned UAE government agencies. Last year, the Embassy was able to repatriate 1,291 distressed Filipinos, the DFA said.
Previously, Paraan served as the administrative officer at the Philippine Embassy in Jakarta from 2012 to 2013. He was also an attaché at the Philippine Embassy in Paris from 2011 to 2012. 
angel@khaleejtimes.com


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