In July, Honorary Georgian Consul Thelmo Cunanan Jr came to the rescue of a Georgian national who had been living transit area of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila for almost 40 days and nights. Upon learning of case, Consul Cunanan, who is officially based in Baguio City, rushed to Manila and was able to resolve the situation within a couple of hours and send the Georgian home the next day.

Consul Cunanan came to the rescue of Georgian national Giorgi (not his real name), who had been LIVING in the transit area of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in METRO MANILA. He had arrived in the Philippines a while back but was not allowed to enter the country because he lacked a valid visa. For several reasons (which included inadequate funds and the difficult language barrier), he was also unable to leave the country.

There was nothing anybody could do. Giorgi couldn’t be detained or deported by the Bureau of Immigration as he hadn’t yet officially entered Philippine territory. Neither could the airline (which had mistakenly allowed him to board without checking if he had a valid visa) force him back on a flight out. He was in the virtual “limbo” of an international transit lounge. No one seemed to be able to understand Giorgi, and vice-versa. Desperate to find a solution and frustrated by the inability of the airline to help this lost Georgian man solve his predicament, Consul Cunanan’s friends in the airport finally called him in BAGUIO CITY and sought the latter’s intercession.

By the time Consul Cunanan was notified of Giorgi’s situation, the latter had spent nearly 40 DAYS AND NIGHTS in the airport, surviving on one set of clothes and no money, sleeping on transit lounge benches, and receiving food hand-outs and donations from kindly Filipinos.

Consul Cunanan immediately rushed down to Manila and arrived at the airport in MANILA at 2 p.m. In the span of less than two hours upon arriving at the scene, he was able to negotiate with airline, airport, and immigration authorities and successfully place Giorgi on the next flight out of the Philippines and onward to his own country. Giorgi has been reunited with his wife and children in Georgia.