The Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) Taichung extension office is to start downsizing its operations from today due to difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, MECO Chairman and Resident Representative Angelito Banayo said yesterday.
Only labor-related services by the Philippine Overseas Workers Welfare Administration would remain available in the Taichung branch, Banayo said.
Consular and notarial services, and overseas absentee voting would be available at the MECO’s Taipei and Kaohsiung offices, he added.
MECO chose to downsize the Taichung office despite the high number of documents and applications it handles due to geographical considerations, he said, urging the Philippine community in Taiwan to understand the reason for the move.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been notified of the downsizing, he added.
Arthur Abiera, head of the Taichung office, was scheduled to return to MECO’s headquarters in Manila yesterday to assume the post of executive director for Manila operations, Banayo said, adding that other staff at the Taichung office would be moved to the Taipei or Kaohsiung branch offices.
Passport renewal services would be offered in Taipei and Kaohsiung, he said.
Capacity for handling passport applications in Taipei would be raised to 100 passports per day, up from the current 50 to 70 passports per day, while the Kaohsiung office would be capable of handling about 80 applications per day, up from the current 40 passports per day, Banayo said.
MECO is a private entity that receives no funding from the Philippine government, although it functions as a de facto embassy in the absence of diplomatic relations between Taiwan and the Philippines.
Visa applications at the Taichung branch have decreased due to pandemic-related travel restrictions, depriving the office of a large percentage of its operational income, Banayo said.
MECO Administrative Service Director Gerry de Belen said that the Taichung office received the last batch of consular and notarial applications on Monday, while it continued issuing passports and other documents until yesterday.
Those who have applied for passports at the Taichung office, but have not to collected them yet would have to claim them at the Taipei office, he added.
To collect their passports at the Kaohsiung office, applicants would have to request this via telephone at the Taipei office, De Belen said.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
CASE COUNT: The deceased had advised law enforcement agencies regarding 60 fraud cases this year, leading to the confiscation of NT$9.3 billion in alleged illegal proceeds Prosecutors yesterday launched an investigation into the death of cryptocurrency expert Miffy Chen (陳梅慧), who died in a car crash on Wednesday under what some consider to be suspicious circumstances following her work with law enforcement to track down NT$9.3 billion (US$286.97 million) in alleged illegal proceeds. Prosecutor-General Hsing Tai-chao (邢泰釗) tasked the Hsinchu District Prosecutors’ Office with investigating the incident following requests from the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) and other agencies with which she worked to crack several prominent cases involving financial fraud and money laundering. Chen was killed in a six-car pileup near Hsinchu in the northbound lanes of Sun
RSS