JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C. is moving the Philippine Honorary Consul from Miami to Jacksonville to be more accessible to Filipino-Americans when it comes to dual citizenship and passport services.
"Moving it here to where we have a lot of Filipinos, plus we would be able to draw from Georgia, from some of the other southern states, it’s very strategic," said newly appointed Florida Philippine Honorary Consul Sharol Noblejas. "So, it would really help the Filipinos when they have work that needs to be done, or any other issues that the Filipino nationals have."
Noblejas was appointed by Ambassador Jose Manuel G. Romualdez at the Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C. on Wednesday. She is the president of Jax Filipinos and board member of several community and advocacy groups, including the City of Jacksonville Mayor’s Asian American Advisory Board since 2017.
Out of 155,000 Filipinos that live in Florida, one out of five live in Jacksonville, making Duval County the largest population of Filipinos in the entire state. But, this isn’t a recent statistic.
“The large Filipino population in Jacksonville dates back to the 70s, when Filipino-Americans moved to the area to work at the three military bases,” Noblejas said.
Since then, Filipinos have helped fill nurse and teacher shortages. Both the U.S. Embassy in Washington D.C. along with the Philippine Embassy are recognizing the contributions of the Filipino community throughout Duval County.
“The Embassy does recognize because of the large number of Filipinos, they really want to make sure to support all of the businesses as well as making sure to get Filipino goods and services here into the state of Florida,” explained Noblejas.
After the Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C. acknowledged Duval County for being the most concentrated area of Filipinos within the state with a ceremony at their headquarters in mid-May, they are currently looking for a building in Jacksonville to house their citizenship services.