Career diplomat and maritime-law specialist Henry Bensurto Jr. heads the new consular post
SEATTLE — The Philippine Consulate General in Seattle is providing selected services to Filipinos and other eligible applicants across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska as it builds toward full consular operations.
The office is located at One Convention Place, 701 Pike Street, Suite 1510, in downtown Seattle.
Acknowledgment and notarial services, including special powers of attorney, affidavits and related documents, are available by appointment. The consulate is also accepting appointments for dual-citizenship applications.
Civil registry applications, including reports of birth, marriage and death, are being accepted by mail only. Applications should be addressed to:
Philippine Consulate General in Seattle
Attn: Civil Registry Section
701 Pike Street, Suite 1510
Seattle, WA 98101
Passport services remain temporarily unavailable, while visa services have not yet begun. The consulate said additional services and appointment slots would be introduced after information and communications technology equipment has been installed and more personnel have been deployed.
Heading the new post is Consul General Henry S. Bensurto Jr., a career diplomat, lawyer and professor whose work has spanned consular affairs, maritime policy and Philippine relations with the United States.
Bensurto arrived in Seattle with previous experience in the region. He earlier served as Philippine consul general in San Francisco and the Pacific Northwest, working with Filipino communities across the western United States. He later led the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Office of Consular Affairs as assistant secretary from 2022 to 2023.
Before assuming his current assignment, Bensurto served as Philippine ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Türkiye, with concurrent accreditation to Georgia and Azerbaijan, from 2023 to 2026.
His diplomatic career has also been closely associated with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the maritime disputes in the South China Sea, including areas the Philippines refers to as the West Philippine Sea.
In 2012, Bensurto was appointed lead counsel for the Department of Foreign Affairs component of the Philippine legal team in the South China Sea arbitration against China.
The Philippines brought the case under the dispute-settlement provisions of the Law of the Sea Convention. In 2016, the arbitral tribunal rejected the legal basis for China’s claim to historic rights over resources within much of the area enclosed by its so-called nine-dash line and clarified the maritime status of several disputed features.
China declined to participate in the proceedings and continues to reject the ruling. The Philippines maintains that the award is final and legally binding.
Before the arbitration was filed, Bensurto developed the Zone of Peace, Freedom, Friendship and Cooperation proposal as a Philippine policy approach to managing disputes in the South China Sea. His official biography says elements of that proposal later formed part of the legal framework used in the Philippine case.
His work on maritime policy extended beyond the arbitration. Bensurto was involved in efforts leading to the passage of Republic Act No. 9522, the Philippine Archipelagic Baselines Law, which aligned the country’s baselines with the Law of the Sea Convention.
As secretary general of the Commission on Maritime and Ocean Affairs Secretariat, he also helped advance the Philippine submission seeking recognition of an extended continental shelf in the Benham Rise region, now known as the Philippine Rise. The United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf adopted its recommendations on the submission in 2012.
Bensurto’s work in Washington also included a 2005 jurisdictional dispute involving U.S. antitrust allegations against executives of Philippine telecommunications companies. As counsel for the Philippine Embassy, he participated in the government’s effort to assert Philippine jurisdiction over actions alleged to have taken place in the Philippines.
His government service has earned several national honors. In 2015, President Benigno Aquino III conferred on him the Order of Lakandula with the rank of Grand Officer for his work on South China Sea issues. He also received the Gawad Mabini with the rank of Dakilang Kasugo from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for his role in the passage of the Philippine Archipelagic Baselines Law.
The Philippine-American Press Club-USA honored him with its Torch Bearer Award in 2016 for his involvement in the arbitration case. He was subsequently recognized by the University of the Philippines for public service and good governance and received alumni honors from Malate Catholic School and San Beda. The Civil Service Commission named him a semifinalist in its 2023 search for recipients of the Presidential Lingkod Bayan Award.
Bensurto studied political science, with a minor in economics, at the University of the Philippines and earned his law degree from San Beda College of Law. His postgraduate training includes public international law at Oxford University, law of the sea studies at the Rhodes Academy of Oceans Law and Policy in Greece, and national security law at the University of Virginia School of Law.
He also pursued coursework in international trade law and human rights law in Washington and teaches at the San Beda Graduate School of Law.
Applicants seeking services at the Seattle consulate should review the requirements for their transactions and obtain appointments when required before visiting. Civil registry applications must be submitted by mail.
