On June 5, 2026, the Philippine Consulate General in Seattle held an opening reception at One Convention Place to celebrate the 128th Philippine Independence Day, as well as formally introduce the new Consul General and personnel of the Philippine Consulate General in Seattle and launch the new Consul General’s initiatives. Keeping to the theme of “Sama-Salo sa Seattle” (Get Together with the Filipino Community), the event featured Filipino food, musical numbers, and special guest speakers, including State Rep. Edwin Obras, who is the only Filipino American currently serving in the Washington state legislature, as well as members of local civic and community organizations.
The Philippine Consulate General is mandated to provide consular services to Philippine nationals, including Philippine passport issuance, civil registration and notarials, as well as Assistance-to-Nationals (ATN) services for distressed Filipino citizens. According to a Pew Research Center study, almost half of people who identify as Filipinos in the US are immigrants who need the services of the Philippine Consulate General, and the AANHPI Community Counts Dashboard (which is part of the Asian American Research Center at UC Berkeley) noted that Washington is the state with the fourth highest number of Filipino residents. In addition to Washington state, the consulate is also mandated to serve Philippine nationals in Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska.
Over three decades in the making
As part of the program, Dr. Dorothy Cordova, co-founder of the Filipino American National Historical Society, gave a speech outlining the history of the Philippine Consulate General in Seattle. The consulate had actually first opened back in 1948. However, in 1985, the Philippine government under the late former President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. determined to reduce foreign service posts and recall positions in “over-staffed” locations, including in Seattle. However, it was in 1993, a few years after Marcos was ousted and replaced by Corazon Aquino, that her administration ultimately closed the consulate.
In the meantime, local leaders such as former executive director of the Washington State
Governor’s Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs (CAPAA), Ellen M. Abellera, worked to organize annual consular outreach events with the Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco, while at the same time working towards the restoration of the consulate in Seattle. In 2017, Henry Bensurto, Jr., who was then the Philippine Consul General in San Francisco, met with Filipino community leaders in Washington state, encouraging them to organize for the consulate’s return. Subsequently, the community leaders founded the Washington Philippine Consulate Coalition (WPCC). Filipino community leaders across Washington state were able to successfully lobby for funding for the Philippine Consulate General in Seattle to be placed on the desk of the Office of the President back in 2023-2024 during the Philippine Congressional Budget Review.
The opening of the consulate in Seattle this year is part of the current Marcos Jr. administration’s initiative to open more Philippine embassies and consulates around the world in order to foster more international partnerships, as well as better serve overseas Filipinos.
New Consul General promises to serve the community
During the opening reception, Bensurto Jr. was officially introduced as the new Philippine Consul General in Seattle. Bensurto is a trained lawyer specializing in international and maritime trade. He led the Philippine team that filed an arbitration case at the Hague regarding territorial disputes against China on the West Philippine Sea, and won it decisively in July 2016. He was the former Consul General in San Francisco, before becoming the Philippine Ambassador to Turkiye in 2023. In an interview, Bensurto expressed his excitement in now serving the Filipino community in Seattle and the greater Pacific Northwest. “I’ve seen this place when I was the Consul General in San Francisco, I saw how vibrant the community was in Seattle,” he shared. “I was so happy when I heard that [the consulate is finally coming here]. And so Seattle deserves this. The community deserves this. This is yours.” In his speech at the opening reception, Bensurto also announced his “Spark, Connect, Empower” initiative to “spark love and passion for the Philippines among Filipinos and Filipino Americans” by providing special tourism opportunities in the Philippines to overseas Filipinos and those in the diaspora.
Community Organizations request for assistance and acknowledgement
As the Filipino community looks forward to the Philippine Consulate meeting their needs, a contingent of community members approached Bensurto during the event, requesting him to address the issues that matter to them, most importantly the recent killing of 19 Filipinos and Filipino Americans (including local community organizer Kai Sorem) by the Philippine military on the island of Negros. One of them, local poet, organizer, and attorney Troy Osaki, had recently joined a fact-finding mission to Negros, and was hoping to share his own findings and experiences with the Consul General. Bensurto agreed to look into this.
Even as the consulate’s opening reception celebrated the 80-year anniversary of Philippines-U.S. bilateral relations, some community members remain wary of such ties. According to an April 2026 press release from local grassroots organization Malaya Seattle, the Philippine military operations that resulted in the death of Sorem and other community leaders are all funded by billions of US taxpayer dollars through a U.S. military aid package to the Philippines, including the recently passed Philippine Enhanced Resiliency Act, which is sending $2.5 billion worth of military aid to the Philippines over the next 5 years.
Closer to home, some community members also hope that having a new consulate in Seattle will finally make it easier for them to provide assistance to nationals, especially to those currently detained at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC). Formerly detained Filipino nationals such as Kuya Max and Kuya G have been vocal about their dissatisfaction with the Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco, especially with their Assistance-to-Nationals officer, Bernice Catherine Santayana. Most recently, local grassroots organization Tanggol Migrante, alongside the Defend Migrants Alliance, have been fighting for the immediate release of two more unjustly detained migrants, including Tatay L and Kuya Rob. According to a June 2026 press release, Tatay (Father) L is a 76-year-old Filipino with cancer and a permanent resident who was detained by ICE at his citizenship hearing, despite having no criminal history in the U.S. Meanwhile, Kuya (Brother) Rob is a 41-year-old Filipino that has been detained since June 2025. He has been separated from his son and elderly mother, who have been left to pay $10,000 dollars in legal fees, despite numerous attempts to access Assistance to Nationals from the Philippine Consulate.
Only recently accredited by the U.S. State Department, the consulate is still currently building its permanent offices at One Convention Place in Seattle, Washington. Bensurto requests patience at this time as their five-person team tries to finish setting up their offices.
Adrian Alarilla, PhD, is a program evaluator, writer, researcher, and filmmaker. Born and raised in the Philippines, he is currently based south of in Seattle, and has a PhD in History from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Besides contributing to the International Examiner, he is an associate with Alaska-based consulting firm Stellar Group, and has worked with Tribal, governmental, and nongovernmental agencies in Alaska, Hawaiʻi, and the Pacific Islands.
