The Consulate General of the Philippines in San Francisco is a
foreign mission
A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...
of the
Republic of the Philippines in the
United States, representing the country's interests in northern
California and the U.S. Pacific Northwest. It is located at the
Philippine Center
The Philippine Center is an agency of the Philippine Government in New York City and San Francisco in the United States. The New York City structure houses the Philippine Mission to the United Nations, the Philippine Consulate General, and the o ...
at 447 Sutter Street in Downtown
San Francisco, just north of
Union Square.
History
The Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco was opened in 1946, immediately after the Philippines was granted independence by the United States, with Dr. Roberto Regala serving as the mission's first consul.
The next year, it established an extension office in
Los Angeles, also headed by Regala as titular consul, but administered by his vice-consul in the person of former Congressman Marcelo T. Boncan. This extension office founded by Regala and Boncan would later become
its own mission in 1955.
During the 1970s and 1980s, protesters opposed to
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martial ...
regularly demonstrated outside the Consulate, and throughout his presidency the Consulate, along with other missions in the United States, was perceived as teeming with agents loyal to the Marcos regime. When Marcos was ousted in the
People Power Revolution in 1986, anti-Marcos demonstrators confronted the mission's staff outside on Sutter Street, eventually taking over the Consulate entirely.
It continues to be a place for anti-government demonstrations today; demonstrators protest in front of the Consulate during political events such as the annual
State of the Nation Address of the sitting Philippine president.
In 2003, the Philippine government briefly contemplated selling the Consulate building, which elicited a strongly negative response from
Max Soliven
Maximo Villaflor Soliven (September 4, 1929 – November 24, 2006) was a Filipino journalist and newspaper publisher. In a career spanning six decades, he founded the ''Philippine Star'' and served as its publisher until his death.
Backgrou ...
, founder of ''
The Philippine Star'', especially in light of the Philippine government's decision to sell during the presidency of
Corazon Aquino
Maria Corazon "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (; ; January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was a Filipina politician who served as the 11th president of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992. She was the most prominent figure of the 1986 People P ...
a building facing Union Square housing the
Philippine Airlines offices in San Francisco, which was sold at a significant loss.
Staff and activities
The Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco is headed by Consul General Neil Frank R. Ferrer, who assumed his post in January 2021.
Currently, the Consulate's jurisdiction covers northern California, northern
Nevada, and the states of
Washington,
Oregon,
Montana,
Colorado,
Idaho,
Utah,
Wyoming and
Alaska.
The Consulate holds regular consular missions in major cities within its jurisdiction, including in
Anchorage
Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Ma ...
,
,
Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
* Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States
* Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
,
,
and
Seattle.
See also
*
List of diplomatic missions of the Philippines
*
List of diplomatic missions in San Francisco
This is a list of foreign diplomatic missions located in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States. , the area hosts 42 consulates-general from 41 different countries (Mexico has two). 39 are located in the city of San Francisco; there is ...
References
External links
Official website
{{Diplomatic missions in the United States
San Francisco
Philippines
Philippines–United States relations