Many thanks to the hardworking, courteous and competent consuls, and officers and staffmembers of the consular office of the U.S. Embassy in Manila, for the efficient and prompt U.S. Visa renewal service.
[the advice is to renew your U.S. Visa a year before expiration in order to avail of the drop-box procedure. For those who forgot to do this (like me), you may apply for renewal online and request for a schedule for interview. ] The online application procedure and online scheduling works: it is very systematic and organized. At the U.S. Embassy on the day of the interview, Monday, i was in and out (for renewal) for only 35 minutes (i clocked it after exiting — it must have been a record for efficiency in government service for work that includes processing thousands of people lining up everyday: the secret is in the methodical process) — this included the actual queuing, checking of documents, tenprinting, and interview; so i must have been in line for less than 30 minutes. The stated time of delivery of the renewed U.S. Visa is seven days. After the Monday morning interview, on Wednesday morning, i got a text message from the courier service of the consular office of the U.S. Embassy that the renewed U.S. Visa would be delivered that day, or only two days after the interview. Wow. True enough, that afternoon, the renewed U.S. Visa was delivered. (there are visa security features and microdata in invisible ink so i cannot upload it, but the photo i used is embedded below, an android shot of the polaroid copy of the photo; well, a portion of the android-shot of one of the copies of the photo that was submitted) Kudos to the courteous and competent men and women of the consular office of the U.S. Embassy in Manila! Mahusay! At maraming salamat po!
Based on news reports: US Ambassador Stevens may have died of asphyxiation from smoke during the armed assault:
“U.S. Suspects Libya Attack Was Planned” By Peter Baker, David D. Kirkpatrick, and Alan Cowell, New York Times Sept. 12, 2012:
“Washington — The violent deaths of four American diplomats in Libya during a heavily armed and possibly planned assault on a flimsily protected consulate facility on the Sept. 11 anniversary provoked a crisis in Washington…
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“There were unconfirmed reports that Ambassador Stevens, a highly regarded diplomat who was well liked by officials in the new Libyan government, was pursued by Islamic militants to his death in a safe house, where he may have died of asphyxiation from smoke in a grenade explosion. He was the first American ambassador killed abroad in more than three decades.
“Initial accounts of the assault in Benghazi were attributed to popular anger over what was described as an American-made video that lampooned the Prophet Muhammad xxx But administration officials in Washington said the attack in Libya may have been plotted in advance.
“xxx (T)he attackers in Benghazi were armed with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. Officials said it was possible that an organized group had either been waiting for an opportunity to exploit the protests over the video or perhaps even generated the protests as a cover for their attack. xxx “
Blog admin’s notes: The violence is covered by criminal law provisions. The embassy is covered by the following provisions:
Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations:
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“Art. 22. 1. The premises of the mission shall be inviolable. The agents of the receiving State may not enter them except with the consent of the head of the mission.
“2. The receiving State is under a special duty to take all the appropriate steps to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the mission or impairment of its dignity. “
On the other hand, YouTube upon which the video was uploaded is governed by… page views, hits, stock valuation…
of one of the copies of the photo that was submitted) 