Good day!

I would just like to raise some concerns on our Philippine Embassy in Bangkok. These are the following:

1. The Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage (LCCM) and the Affidavit should be put in one document like the other embassies (they only have an affidavit) because it is costly to separate them since we need to pay 300 baht to 700 baht per page for translating them to Thai. Aside from the translation, we also have to pay for the authentication at the Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 800 baht per document (express) or 400 baht per document (normal, 2 days, so we still have to pay for the transportation in going back).

2. In registering the marriage, the Embassy should not get the original authenticated marriage contract (authenticated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), instead get a copy and check it from the original especially if one of the couples is not a Filipino because he/she will be needing it also in his/her embassy. According to a staff in the embassy, the NSO in the Philippines needs the original authentication, but isn't it one of the reasons why we have an embassy here in order to check some documents, acknowledge and attest its truthfulness? Which office now has more access in checking the documents from Thailand? Is it the NSO, or the Embassy here in Thailand? It's the Embassy, right? The Embassy will just only tell the NSO that the documents submitted are true, because in no way that the NSO will verify the documents here in Thailand. What's the use of the embassy then if the NSO will do the verification? I hope you got my point here.

3. The embassy doesn't have a photocopier machine, because there was a white foreigner who applied for a visa, and then the staff needs a copy of something (maybe the passport), and he told the foreigner to copy it outside. That was almost 12:00 noon, and when I went out at around maybe 12:30, I saw the foreigner in a quite far place looking for a photocopier. Not a good service.

4. The Filipinos here in Thailand are working so hard, yet earning only a sufficient income, or maybe less. Why can't the embassy help us in some little ways like looking for some ways that we can save in processing documents?

5. The Embassy is more or less 2 hours from my place and Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is more than an hour far. My fare is 155 baht in going to the Ministry and 95 baht to the Embassy, notwithstanding the walking and the heat. What I am trying to say here is that it is costly and tiresome in going to offices.

6. Why is there no queue number in the Embassy? Is it that expensive?

7. Maybe some staff needs a Customer Service Seminar. I observed that they attend more on their personal needs than the needs of the customers during their duty hours. ( I hate to say this, "the traditional government employees.")

8. Our embassy is old, and it's dark... A haunted house perhaps. hehe.

I hope that these concerns will be given a due consideration. I hope that by next time I will go there, I can see changes.