What is CFO
Guidance and Counseling Seminar?
Shanaz Well, March 2009

When I reached CFO Office (I chose SMEF-COW Manila) on my schedule for the seminar, here are the things I did before I started with the seminar proper:
1. I filled up on their logbook found on the counter area. I wrote my fullname, home address, country of destination, time schedule for my seminar, and signature.
2. From there, I need to show the required documents (see article: Before Applying for a Passport).
3. All documents were clear copied in triplicate.
4. I paid the necessary fees at the counter. You have to go outside and wait for your name to be called. I should understand this part because it was a little bit crowded when I went there. Many Filipinos need to go through with the seminar.
5. When my name was called, they asked me to go to the photograph section, where they need to make a photo from me, which will be later on embedded on my seminar certificate and certificate of attendance. (Note: Guidance and Counseling Certificate of Attendance is different from Guidance and Counseling Certificate)
6. Then I attended the seminar as they redirected different applicants to their respective room assignments, depending on the country of destination.

 

The CFO Guidance and Counseling Seminar

SMEF-COW Manila has different rooms for seminars. In my room assignment, it can accommodate an estimated 100 applicants only for those going in Europe. That was my impression but I did not manually count the attendants. It is an audio-visual room loaded with facilities basically needed for a seminar.

First, there was a video shown to us. It depicts different Filipino lives abroad. They showed us Filipinos who are being abused in different countries and sample stories like battered wife, fake marriages, and prostitution. For a critical audience, she will actually think that once you reach your country of destination, you will not go there to ruin the name of being a Filipino. You should not go there to be fooled by foreigners. You should not go there to become battered wives or becoming a maid of your own husband. What they are trying to explain to us is not to allow any form of abuse from a foreign country to our very own Filipinos.

Just in case the abuses are inevitable later on, the seminar teaches "how to do things" such as securing the help of the nearest Philippine Embassy, contacting NGOs affiliated by the CFO, contacting your nearest relative (which was written on your CFO Registration Form) and thereafter contact the CFO for you so CFO can act and do immediate remedies to help you. These are just few instances, which the CFO does not want to happen but they somehow anticipated, which are very helpful.

After the seminar, there is a forum in small groups of five persons with one counselor for each group. Here, you will be talking personally about other things which you need to do. If you have questions, you can ask them and they will answer the best advise that they have for you. If you have a particular problem in relation to your visa processing, they will also give you advises. Everything are for your own personal good. In addition, they will advise you what are forbidden to bring during travel. They strictly told us the do's and dont's in the airport aside from airline restrictions on baggages. Do you know my feeling when I finished the seminar? I felt that my fellow Filipinos from this office care about every Filipino or Filipina. They don't want them to suffer later on or they don't want that something bad will happen to them. It is like cuddling their own children. It sounds surprising for me that even I traveled five hours back and forth to this office (for a total of 10 hours for travel alone), it was worth it.

On that same day, I secured my Guidance and Counseling Certificate of Attendance. This certificate of attendance is what I needed for my passport application at the Department of Foreign Affairs. Ooppps, you may ask where is the Guidance and Counseling Certificate? I need to secure first a passport, a visa on the passport, and the Certificate of Attendance given to me earlier, bring back to SMEF-COW Manila, where I took my seminar, and show to the Commission of Foreign Overseas (CFO) office, which is exactly standing beside the building of SMEF-COW Manila for the release of my CFO Guidance and Counseling Certificate and CFO Sticker. After paying the necessary fees, CFO officers will staple on my passport the Guidance and Counseling Certificate and attached the CFO Sticker on another page on the passport. The sticker is full of securities, you cannot easily fake it, mmh. It must be. What is visible to your eye is your fullname, date of release, emigrant number, and signature of or for the executive director of CFO.

For married women who wanted to use the surname of their husband, these documents from CFO should not be ignored. Aside from these, these are prerequisites for passport and visa applications, the sticker is strictly checked at the airport before departure.

CFO also said, "You do not need to attend another seminar unless you have a new petitioner or new country of destination."

After having the CFO Certificate of Attendance, I am now ready to process my passport.