The Philippine Consulate General in Melbourne welcomes the addition of a new Consul to its team with the arrival of Mr Ralph Vincent C. Abarquez last 15 February 2023. He is a Class 1 Foreign Service Officer that previously served as Second Secretary and Consul in the Philippine Embassy in Brussels. Belgium from 2014 to 2020. Immediately before his posting in Melbourne, he was also the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Director for Strategic Communications at the Office of Public and Cultural Diplomacy from November 2020 to February 2023, where his duties included coordinating the media engagements of the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and supervising the DFA’s Freedom of Information unit.
The Consulate, headed by Consul General Maria Lourdes M. Salcedo, now has two Consuls, with Mr Abarquez working alongside Mr Jan Sherwin Wenceslao, whose promotion as a Class 1 Foreign Service Officer was confirmed on 22 February 2022.
The arrival of Mr Abarquez is expected to boost the capacity of the Consulate to promote Philippine interests in Melbourne and cater to the growing needs of the Filipino Diaspora in Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania. The Consulate is also preparing for the milestone harmonized celebrations of the 125th anniversary of the declaration of Philippine independence in collaboration with the Filipino community in Victoria.
