-         please be informed that yours truly have been in constant contact with the Philippine Embassy (Consular office and Labor Office) following up the applications for the renewal of passports which the FAB has sent 2 months back, but unfortunately, I have been given the same answers over and over:

·        that the consular staff has no schedule yet as to when they will be coming to the Bahamas;

·        That the consular office is under staffed and that if they send the only person working there then who will be left to work at the Embassy?;

·        That if a worker has to travel, then a travel document will have to be applied for,  in place of a valid passport;

·        That we have to wait as to when their schedule will be set;

-         considering our status as OFW’s, I have informed the Labor Attache of our predicament and I was informed that:

·        we are not the only Caribbean Country having the same problem;

·        the Labor Office has been behind all of us in following up such problems. Our Labor Attache pledged to do her best to help us in this problem.

-         on behalf of the FAB officers and coordinators, I am obliged to post in our site this report because as members, you have all the right to be updated especially those who have applied for passport renewal. I have informed the Consular Office that most of our OFW’s are not able to renew their work permits because of expired passports and that I have reiterated the urgency and dangers of staying in a foreign land with no valid passport on hand.

-         It is the hope of the FAB officers that those who keep on blaming us for the delays will be enlightened after this update. I intentionally did not make an immediate report because I was hoping that each time I call, I will be getting an affirmative answer. Sad to say, up to now, the latest answer I received when I called last Friday is that,  they are in the process of fixing the schedule.

-         I sympathize with those of you who have applied for renewal. We have done our part when asked by the Consular office to send the application forms, and we never failed in calling the Consular Office and the Labor office for that matter.

-         I assure you that we will keep on calling and reminding the proper authorities but please understand that we have limitations.