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NEWS RELEASE 04-2024

PH Embassy Conducts 1st Consular Mission in 2024 in Bucharest

BUDAPEST, 29 January 2024 – The Philippine Embassy in Budapest, together with the Migrant Workers’ Office (MWO) in Milan, successfully conducted its first consular outreach mission in Bucharest on 27 and 28 January 2024, extending services to hundreds of Filipino residents in Romania with the support of volunteers from The Filipino Community in Romania (TFCR).

The consular team, which set up a pop-up office at the Mercure Bucharest City Center Hotel, processed a total of 40 passport renewals, 16 Reports of Birth (RoB), 23 Reports of Marriage (RoM), 6 applications for National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) clearance, 46 notarizations, and 1 each for a travel document and Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage (LCCM).

The Embassy team, which was composed of Consul General Roderico C. Atienza, Attaches Joselito B. Blas and Claro H. Cabuniag, and Consular Assistant Brigitta Szilágyi, also allowed 30 overseas Filipinos to have online consultations on Zoom with Manila-based Pag-IBIG Fund representatives Noela Macaspac and Ezra Guerrero.

The MWO Milan team, comprising Welfare Officer and Acting MWO Head Petrona M. Bergado, and Administrative Staff Mr. Anthony M. Allermo, were able to process 115 individual employment contract verifications, two issuances of the Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC), and 110 membership applications for Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).

In all, 214 Filipinos residing in Romania – from Timișoara and Oradea in the west, near the borders with Serbia and Hungary to Constanța in the east on the coast of the Black Sea to Iași in the north – came to the two-day mobile mission, according to TFCR officers and volunteers who assisted the mission.

Apart from current TFCR members, there were also former officers who helped out in welcoming the consular team at the airport, providing lunch and dinner in order to maximize their interactions with the resident Filipinos in the country during their brief mission.

The consular outreach mission is a once annual event undertaken by the Philippine Embassy in Budapest and the MWO Milan to provide consular services to Filipino nationals in Romania. This year’s mission is likely to be its last given the expected reopening of the Philippine Embassy in Bucharest sometime in 2024.

Romania is one of the six countries under the Hungary-based Philippine Embassy’s concurrent non-resident jurisdiction, apart from Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Moldova, Montenegro, and Serbia. In addition to the Embassy’s seven-country coverage, MWO Milan also covers Austria, Croatia, Slovakia, and Slovenia.-END-

Photo 1: The Philippine Embassy in Budapest and the Migrant Workers Office (MWO) in Milan conducted a successful consular outreach mission at the Mercure Bucharest City Center Hotel on 27-28 January 2024, the first for this year, together with the valuable assistance of volunteers from The Filipino Community in Romania (TFCR). The team members (seated) are (left to right) Consular Assistant Claro H. Cabuniag, Consular Staff Brigitta Szilágyi, Consul General Roderico C. Atienza, Welfare Officer and Acting MWO Head Petrona M. Bergado, Administrative Staff Anthony M. Allermo and Administrative Officer Joselito B. Blas. They were assisted by The Filipino Community in Romania (TFCR) members and officers, namely (standing, from left to right) Daphne Villanueva, Marilyn Bracamonte, Daisy Arellano, Ann Tomasa, and Maricor Tomas.

Photo 2: The Philippine Embassy in Budapest, together with the Migrant Workers’ Office (MWO) in Milan, successfully conducted its first consular outreach mission at the Mercure Bucharest City Center Hotel on 27 and 28 January 2024, extending services to hundreds of Filipino residents in Romania with the support of volunteers from The Filipino Community in Romania (TFCR).

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NEWS RELEASE 02-2024

Hungarian folk musician to receive PH Foundation Peace Prize

BUDAPEST, 19 January 2024 – A state-awarded Hungarian folk musician will be recognized next month for his efforts to promote international peace and understanding through music by a Philippine non-profit foundation in Manila, the Embassy of the Philippines in Budapest said in a report to the Department.

József Terék, 43, told Philippine Ambassador Frank R. Cimafranca in a courtesy call at the chancery of the Philippine Embassy in Budapest on Friday, 17 January 2024, that he will become the second Hungarian national to be given such an honor by the Manila-based Sino-Phil Asia International Peace Awards Foundation, a non-profit organization established in 2015.

The first Hungarian recipient was Dr József Bencze, Hungarian Ambassador to the Philippines in 2017-2020, for his translation into Hungarian language of Dr José Rizal’s patriotic poem, “Mi Ultimo Adios” in 2020. A marker of the poem was unveiled at Fort Santiago, Intramuros in 2017.

As Ambassador Bencze was not able to receive the prize due to a COVID-19 lockdown, he will join Terék and 17 other laureates at ceremonies to be held at the Fiesta Pavilion Grand Ballroom of the Manila Hotel on 16 February 2024.

Terék, who was awarded in 2014 the Hungarian Gold Cross of Merit, the highest class of the fifth highest state decoration of Hungary, for "the arrangement and promotion of folk songs and folk music of the Tápió region, as well as for his music education and performing activities," offered his services to the Embassy at its bilateral events this year.

During his visit to the Philippines next month, his third, he also intends to give a free recital of tarogato, a traditional Hungarian woodwind instrument, to Filipino music students and the public as his contribution to the commemoration of the golden anniversary this year of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Hungary.

The two countries which established diplomatic relations on 28 September 1973 held commemorative events in both Manila and Budapest to promote and deepen ties.

In 2018, Terék visited the Philippines for the first time with his folk music band for a concert tour at the University of the Philippines (UP), University of Santo Tomas, International School of Manila, De la Salle-College of Saint Benilde. In 2020, he returned alone for concerts at UP, University of San Carlos in Cebu, Ateneo de Davao University in Davao.

Terék, who is also an ethnographer, composer and Cultural Officer of Pest County Municipality, is also keen to follow the footsteps of Jenő Takács, a Hungarian composer and pianist who was a contemporary of Béla Bartók, and who learned from French composer Darius Milhaud, Hungarian music pedagogue Zoltán Kodály, and American violinist Yehudi Menuhin.

Takács worked as a professor of piano and composition at the UP Conservatory of Music in 1932-34. During this time, he went around the country making recordings of Philippine folk music. The audio recordings Takács made on the Philippines were enlisted in UNESCO's “Memory of the World” collection in 1999. Takács also gave concerts in Japan, China and Hong Kong.

A graduate of Nyíregyháza College of Music in eastern Hungary, Terék is an active promoter of Hungarian music.

In 2017, at the request of the local government of Pest County, Terék arranged more than a hundred folk songs collected by Zoltán Kodály from a total of nine settlements in the county – Dömsöd, Gomba, Gyón, Őrszentmiklós, Páty, Szigetszentmiklós, Tinnye, Tök and Váchartyán – and published a CD of them on the 50^th anniversary of Kodály's death that year.-END-

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NEWS RELEASE 03-2024

FilCom Groups in Hungary Invited to Join European Network

BUDAPEST, 20 January 2024 – Representatives of the three Filipino community organizations recognized by the Embassy of the Philippines in Hungary gathered at the chancery on Saturday, 20 January 2024 for a discussion with leaders of the European Network of Filipino Diaspora (ENFiD) who invited them to form a Hungarian chapter of the network.

In his welcoming remarks, Ambassador Frank R. Cimafranca welcomed the ENFiD officers from the United Kingdom, Italy, Austria, and Czech Republic, led by its chair, Christian W. Estrada, and the representatives of the Bayanihan Filipino Association, the Mabuhay Filipino Community, and the Association of Filipino Students in Hungary (AFSHu).

Citing the network’s “proud pedigree of community building” going back to the Amsterdam-based Commission on Filipino Migrant Workers (CFMW) in 1991, Ambassador Cimafranca said the Philippine Embassy immediately recognized the vital role the pan-European network plays in the government’s comprehensive efforts to unite Filipino organizations throughout Europe.

“The timing of this dialogue could not be more fitting. Hungary's more liberal migration policies, coupled with its economic growth and increasing foreign investment inflows, have resulted in a growing number of Filipinos calling Hungary their home,” Ambassador Cimafranca said, noting that the Filipino community in Hungary is probably one of the fastest growing in Europe.

“We are confident that this gathering will foster fruitful interactions, encouraging a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by our Filipino community in Hungary,” he added, calling the officers of the three Filipino community groups to work together.

“Through our collective efforts, we aim to contribute to the development and prosperity of the Philippines, promote our shared interests, and uphold the general welfare of all Filipinos worldwide,” Ambassador Cimafranca told the gathering of some 30 people, taking a cue from the theme of the Diaspora to Dialogue (D2D) event.

Emphasizing that the pan-European network has 17 chapters, Chair Estrada said the D2D engagement at the Embassy, its eighth overall, aimed to build connections across all the Filipino communities and ensure Filipinos felt less isolated and more empowered. “You are not alone” is one of the mottos ENFiD lives by, Estrada said.

ENFiD-Austria representative Marizel Rojas explained that ENFiD prioritized certain areas of collaboration, namely Education and Learning, Embracing the Environment, Elevating Arts and Culture, and Empowering Euro Pinoy Youth, to encourage Filipinos in Europe to contribute proactively in nation-building instead of simply reflecting the character of Filipinos back home.

The other ENFiD officers, Marison Rodriguez from Prague, Ana Bel Mayo from Milan, Ren Mangaban, Anna Maria Langer and Nilsa Fisher from Vienna, stepped up and gave their personal testimonies on how ENFiD helped them as individuals or as part of the larger community. They were joined by freelance journalists from ENFiD-Czech Republic Andy Peñafuerte III and Jay-Vee Marasigan Pangan.

The ENFiD officers also encouraged the Filipinos in Hungary on their outlined projects and programs to join in their Annual General Assembly and the Asian-European Cultural and Culinary Festivities with a Festival Parade to be held in Vienna on 31 May and 1 June 2024, respectively.

ENFiD was created through a declaration issued in Rome on 8 December 2012, by overseas Filipinos from Italy, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and the UK, among others.

The population of Filipinos in Hungary expanded from below 1,000 in 2020 to around 15,000 in late 2023.

Early this month, Hungary’s Ministry of Economy announced that the government will issue up to 65,000 permits for guest workers coming from outside of the European Union this year. The Embassy thus expects the number of arriving Filipino workers to increase this year, with some 6,000 more factory and skilled workers from the Philippines expected to be given work visas.-END-

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