President Duterte has conferred the Gawad Mabini with the rank of Dakilang Kamanong to Consul General Paul Raymund Cortes.
In a WhatsApp message to The Filipino Times from Manila, the consul general said: “I am humbled at the recognition. While it validates our efforts to provide greater and more efficient service to our fellow Filipinos, it serves as a jolting call for us to continue raising the standards of public service to the overseas Filipino community in Dubai and the Northern Emirates.
“Not only must we raise the standards, but we must also think of more ways to engage our fellow Filipinos for them to play a more active role in diaspora diplomacy.”
In a span of three years, Consul General Cortes was able to address a gamut of concerns of more than 400,000 Overseas Filipinos (OFs) under the purview of the Philippine Consulate General in Dubai. The Consulate General 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, Post was able to process 71,566 passports and notarized / legalized 57,603 documents. Apart from doing regular Assistance to Nationals (ATN) work, Consul General Cortes has spearheaded public diplomacy campaigns through ATN outreach missions and legal seminars. Last year, Post attended to over 6,000 walk-in clients, repatriated 1,269 distressed Filipinos, including 23 medical repatriations and 19 shipment of remains. Consul General Cortes served as the Deputy Consul General at the Philippine Consulate General in Honolulu from 2010-2012.
He was Third Secretary and Vice Consul of the Philippine Embassy in Budapest from 1998 to 2004.
