Foreign Diplomatic Missions in the Philippines, and Philippine Diplomatic Missions abroad

[businessasusual]

Any OFW members out there? Let's try to find the best Philippine Embassy! I'll try to snap a shot here in Tokyo next week!

[kiretoce]

Thanks! Your contribution will be much appreciated!

[Animo]

By Jessica Zafra



What a lady: US Ambassador Kristie A. Kenney is svelte, youngish, vivacious and blonde — in the movies, she would be cast as the friendly neighbor who organizes swap meets and bakes cookies for the kids.

I am having tea with the US Ambassador to the Philippines. Tea and a chat, no specific topics, though cats and tennis will probably be mentioned. Ambassador Kristie A. Kenney is svelte, youngish, vivacious and blonde — in the movies, she would be cast as the friendly neighbor who organizes swap meets and bakes cookies for the kids. We are, in fact, having cookies. I imagine her sunny demeanor must be slightly disconcerting to hard-nosed old-boy politicians. Which is not to say that Ambassador Kenney is a softie. A career diplomat, she is the first female US envoy to this country. Before she was assigned here in March 2006, she was the Ambassador to Ecuador. Her husband, William R. Brownfield, is currently the US Ambassador to Colombia.

“It’s an embarrassing story,” she says of her start in the foreign service. “After college I worked three years for a member of the US Congress, then I went to graduate school. I was in graduate school on a scholarship, with a bunch of friends who were also on scholarships, so we had zero money. We were very eager to get jobs when we graduated, and one of our friends said, ‘They’re giving tests for diplomats. Why don’t we take it, it’s free?’ So I went and I passed the test. It was one of those things where you just kept going. Then I got called in for an interview.

“Thousands of people take the test, a thousand pass, and it takes a long time to interview them because they’re scattered all over. Then you go for your medical exam, you’re put on a roster, and rank-ordered for a job. One day I got a call for a job. I thought, I’ll try it for a year or two, and it’s been 26 years. It suits me because it’s always different, always interesting.”

Her stint in the Philippines has met all expectations, with a couple of surprises. “I don’t think I realized how easy it would be to talk to Filipinos of all sizes, persuasions, ages, professions. I didn’t realize how easy it would be to walk into Starbucks and make friends. Americans are friendly, and Filipinos are double that.

“I didn’t expect Manila to be as green as it is. The pictures I’d seen were of the Makati skyline or very poor neighborhoods like Tondo, and I didn’t realize until I got here that there are pockets of greenery everywhere. There aren’t that many big parks, so I’d expected it to look very big city-concrete, but it’s not.”

I note that the Philippines has a bit of an image problem: many foreigners have no idea what it is, and they seem to think it’s somewhere near Hawaii. What do foreigners know about our country? “A lot of people I know in the US remember Ninoy and Cory Aquino,” Ambassador Kenney replies. “I’ve had friends visiting me who aren’t really savvy about international politics, and they all bought the ‘I Am Ninoy’ T-shirt for Christmas gifts. Everybody remembers the events of 1986, and even if you weren’t paying attention, you remember.”

Whenever she has guests, she usually takes them to Corregidor and to the pearl market in Greenhills.

“I find that the good news about the Philippines doesn’t get out very much,” she adds. “Every visitor I’ve had is astonished by the creativity here, the things people do with fibers like piña and abaca, the furniture-making. People have heard of Boracay, but they haven’t really heard of the other tranquil, beautiful sights. And the sophistication of Manila surprises them — all the shopping malls, you could be anywhere in America.

“The international news media tends to pick up stories about poverty, crime, or terrorism, so people are surprised to get here and find the huge numbers of restaurants. And to find that a lot of well-known people in the States are Filipinos, designers like Josie Natori.”

We are joined by a glossy black cat named Junior, aged nine. Later Emily, a sweet, black 10-year-old moggie with white markings, peers into the Ambassador’s living room to see if her dinner is served. The Kenneys’ cats Emily, Junior and Niles were all rescued from animal shelters. Niles got stressed-out by the constant stream of visitors to the ambassador’s residence, so he is chilling out in Pampanga. The three cats have traveled with their humans from Washington, DC to Quito, Ecuador to Manila.

I ask the Ambassador if Quito is anything like Manila. “The only real similarities are the old Spanish churches,” she says, “And the love of family, the extended family that often lives together. Ecuador is much poorer, much less sophisticated.” She adds that Quito is a world heritage site, and its churches are similar in style to the old churches of Ilocos.

The US is always a topic of great interest to Filipinos, and this interest seemed to grow exponentially during the recent American presidential election. Was she surprised at how interested we were in their elections? “I was and wasn’t,” the diplomat replies. “I wasn’t because we were all the same way. Presidential elections don’t always capture the American public’s attention: sometimes they’re dull or boring or the candidates aren’t exciting. For this one we all became political junkies.

“I wasn’t surprised that people were interested, I was surprised at how interested they were, and I was thrilled about that. It was a good election with a great variety of candidates and this great use of new media. It’s good to see people thinking about issues. It was great to see so many youth in America turning out to vote for the first time.

“Credit goes to President Obama and his team for getting people passionate about the issues.”

The other big story about the US has been the financial meltdown. “The gloomy news is all people report on. All I have is anecdotal evidence. I was in Hawaii for a week of vacation in January, and everything was packed,” Ambassador Kenney recounts. “Same time I was hearing on the TV and reading in the papers that the economy is a disaster, I was finding that you couldn’t get a table in a restaurant because if you don’t reserve ahead, they’re full. There clearly are lots of people who are still going out and leading pretty normal lives. The real question, I think, will be how quickly the United States and the rest of the world can turn this around, use our combined efforts to stimulate economic growth.

“One of my friends was saying that a lot of this is a confidence issue,” she adds. “It’s a vicious cycle. You have all these stories about how you’re going to lose your job, things are bad. People get nervous, they think, “I won’t spend, I won’t go out,” which (eventually) leads to people losing their jobs.”

Does this mean fewer Filipinos are going to the United States these days? The Ambassador says the numbers remain constant. “Filipinos of all sectors continue to travel to the US for business, vacations, school. And immigration — we are the largest issuer of immigrant visas in the world. You can’t go anywhere in the US without finding Filipinos.” The Philippine government estimates that there are four million Filipinos in the United States. According to the US Embassy, there are about 250,000 Americans in the Philippines. These estimates, the Ambassador notes, might not have even factored in dual citizenships.

For people with a horror of staying put, being a diplomat sounds like the ideal career. Is it tough breaking into the diplomatic service? “I got in,” Ambassador Kenney laughs. “It’s competitive, but no more competitive than anything else. There’s a lot of scope to do so many different things. You can take a lot of different talents. Some of my colleagues are much better at negotiations — you wouldn’t call on me to negotiate a treaty, I don’t have the patience — some people are better writers and speakers, some people are better at development work.”

What would be her particular specialization? “I’ve jumped all over. I’m always interested in our development projects, but the environment particularly interests me because there’s so much to protect here.

“One of the things we’ve been doing is teaching fishermen to fish in a way that gets them a higher value yield without taking the fish they don’t need — the little baby fish — and supplementing their income. We’ve worked to train aquarium fishermen in how to pick fish and how to package them so they don’t die on the way. We’ve helped them organize a cooperative so they can pool their resources.” She talks about clean energy and environmental protection in her blog, which she recently launched on the US Embassy website. “I get to see amazing things, but I don’t have the chance to talk about them,” she says.

This is Ambassador Kenney’s third year in the Philippines, and she expects to get word of her next post fairly soon. “I’ll be disappointed to leave,” she smiles. In the meantime there are meetings, trips, briefings, and cats to attend to.

* * *

E-mail your comments and questions to emotionalweatherreport@gmail.com.

[JudeD]

Our latest issue featuring diplomats' kids! Out now!

[johnmizer]

sino yung naka blue> shes hot

[JudeD]

^
South African Ambassador's daughter.

[johnmizer]

is there any chance na makita sya sa bgc?

[kiretoce]

The Banker as Diplomat



If British super agent James Bond is on Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Ambassador Jesus Tambunting believes his task is to serve Juan de la Cruz in his various capacities.

As the chief executive officer and chairman of Planters Development Bank, Tambunting’s mission is to help grow small to medium enterprises (SMEs) to become a more active agent in national development. Plantersbank is regarded as the country’s largest private SME bank.

In an interview with the BusinessMirror, Tambunting recalls that it was a challenge putting up Plantersbank. “At that time, one of our obstacles is to overcome the strong bias against noncommercial banks, especially when you’re based countryside,” he says.

Now that the bias against noncommercial banks has been erased, Tambunting notes that some people assume he’s a commercial banker.

Tambunting admits that there have been opportunities before to convert Plantersbank into a commercial bank. “But we decided to continue to be a development bank,” he says. “The idea was to service the countryside, which has now become a phenomenon. Times have changed now. We’re now considered the leader and we are happy the big banks now are servicing SMEs.”

Just like any business organization, Tambunting points out that professionalism is an important aspect of servicing the SMEs. This is done through the judicious utilization of resources to prevent the emergence of a subprime type of business. “We have to be professional because the challenges are very strong,” he says.

With its bigger resources. Plantersbank is now in a better position to serve more SMEs in funding their business requirements and, at the same time, teaching them to become more efficient in their business directions.

Last year, Plantersbank posted a net income after tax of P350.4 million, P12.8 million higher than 2007’s record. The bank also managed to deliver a good performance in the closing months of 2008 as its assets grew to P44.8 billion, P1.6 billion higher compared with 2007.

The bank also reported total deposits of P34.7 billion in 2008, 7.2 percent or P2.3 billion higher than the previous year. Meanwhile, capital funds totaled P3.5 billion, the largest among the independent savings banks in the country.

Plantersbank is also helping SMEs launch into cyberspace through the establishment of SME Solutions Inc., in partnership with the International Finance Corp. of the World Bank. The Plantersbank subsidiary provides Web-based solutions to SMEs, and Tambunting is proud that some of its clients included rising stars like Hortaleza and Godiva.

Tambunting served as the Philippines’ Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1993 to 1998. At the same time he concurrently served as Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland and as Permanent Philippine Representative to the International Maritime Organization.

The diplomatic assignment was a break from Tambunting’s banking career. For that prime post, he was just given five days to decide.

“My wife and I experienced sleepless nights. We asked ourselves do we do it or not. We have to decide fast because many people are interested in the post,” he says.

“I realized that this opportunity does not come often. I do not have regrets and I think we have a successful stint there. The UK became the most important country with bilateral relationship among countries in the European community. The UK was top in investment, trade and tourism,” he notes.

One of the memorable moments for Tambunting in London was when then President Fidel Ramos was officially invited by the British government for a state visit. It was a first for a Philippine president to be officially hosted by the British government. “It was a proud moment in our history when a Philippine president addressed the British parliament,” he beams.

He credits Ramos for fostering strong Philippine-British ties.

His stint also led to a strong attachment with the Anglo-Saxon culture.

Tambunting recalls that it was difficult for him in the beginning to show the embassy staff that he meant business. Later, he proved that he was sincere and focused on the job in serving the needs of Filipinos.

“In my case, I worked hard. I also applied the best management practices. I talked to them about our objective. Instead of going to the motion, I wanted them to work hard,” he says.

“The impression of the Filipinos was that they were not treated well. In my case, the first thing I required was to treat every Filipino like a customer. You don’t make them wait for a long time. We refurbished the waiting chairs and put newspapers and magazines from the Philippines,” he adds.

Tambunting told the embassy staff that processing of Filipinos’ papers must done within the day. Being an expensive city, Tambunting reminded the staff that it would be quite hard for Filipinos to stay in London.

Having been a diplomat and a banker, Tambunting says there’s satisfaction in both. As a banker, Tambunting says Plantersbank is a unique bank serving the SMEs, particularly in the countryside. As a diplomat, Tambunting says he put his best food forward as an ambassador because he is the representative of the country.

“Many would think the reason I went [to London] was because I wanted to be called Your Excellency and Ambassador. They couldn’t believe I went there to serve the country,” he says.

[kiretoce]

Israel sees business potential in RP, appoints consul to Cebu

Israel has appointed a consul for Cebu to make its presence stronger in the central and southern Philippines, which Ambassador to Manila Zvi Vapni sees as growth areas for business, agriculture technology and tourism.

“We see Cebu as the gateway to the southern Philippines, that is why we are trying to intensify our presence here,” Vapni said. “We like to see business in this region [grow].”

Vapni said the current $200 million worth of trade between Israel and the Philippines is “very sad” considering Israel’s total business in this part of the world is close to $18 billion, mostly in the fields of high technology and agriculture work.

There is also a huge potential for tourism between Israel and the Philippines. He said Filipinos usually go to Israel for pilgrimage, but that there are other activities like shopping, a visit to the Dead Sea and a tour of the desert.

He said Israelis would also love to visit beaches in the Philippines, if only they could hear and read more about the country.

Israel has a population of 7 million with a land area as big as Palawan. Last year, 2 million Israelis went abroad for holidays.

“Most of [the Israeli] tourists went to Vietnam and Thailand because they have not heard of the Philippines yet,” Vapni said.

He said potential business areas where Israelis could invest in the Philippines are in technology support for call centers and manufacturing of hi-tech electronics made in Israel.

“We do not have brands like Nokia, but I can tell you most of the components and technology inside gadgets are made in Israel,” Vapni said.

He said the USB flash drive and Internet messaging services are two technologies developed in Israel and bought by US and European companies.

There is also huge potential for partnerships in agriculture as Israelis have developed technologies to maximize the use of land and rain, considering the arid climate in Israel. He said Israelis are also experts in building water systems and water-testing technology.

[kiretoce]

The Philippines sets up Embassy in Syria

The Philippines has opened an embassy in Damascus, Syria to serve the needs of a growing Filipino population there and to improve political and economic ties with the Middle East state, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Thursday.

The government said its diplomatic mission in Damascus is considered one of the most important posts since Syria is often being used as a transit point for Filipinos in times of crisis in the Middle East.

"With 17,000 Filipinos in Syria, the establishment of a new embassy here in Damascus could not have come at a more opportune time," said Vice President and Presidential adviser on overseas Filipinos and migrant workers Noli De Castro.

Do Castro expressed hope for both countries to forge a bilateral labor agreement that will ensure the protection of Filipino workers in Syria.

Faced with rising domestic unemployment rates, Manila has openly encouraged Filipinos looking for a job to go abroad, especially to the relatively crisis-proof Middle East countries.

Overseas remittance is a major source of domestic consumption back home and provides steams to the Philippines' economic growth over the past few years.

He also cited the importance of Syria in the Middle East region with "its energy resources and fertile lands that contribute to a strong petroleum industry and dynamic agricultural sector."

Currently, the Philippines has more than 60 embassies around the globe, plus three permanent missions to the United Nations, one permanent mission to the World Trade Organization, and 21 consulates general offices.

[venntro]

RP posts adopting proactive measures vs A-H1N1
05/07/2009 | 04:52 PM

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine embassies and consulates abroad have adopted a proactive stance to protect Filipinos from the A-H1N1 (swine flu), the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Thursday.

"In places where the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed cases of A/H1N1, Philippine posts have issued advisories to Filipino communities to take precautionary actions. Posts have also set up hotlines for Filipinos who have concerns or questions on A/H1N1," the department said on its website (www.dfa.gov.ph).

In New York, the Philippine Consulate General disseminated the advisory by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene entitled, “Swine Influenza: What New Yorkers Need To Know" to the Filipino Community.

There are over 280,000 Filipinos living and working in New York.

As of May 6, the WHO said there are 403 laboratory confirmed human cases in the United States.

“Filipino-Americans are encouraged to constantly monitor the news about the incidence of swine flu within and outside their areas, and stay vigilant for any possible threats to their health," Consul General Cecilia Rebong said.

In Canada, Consul General in Toronto Alejandro Mosquera said the more than 330,000 Filipinos there are still safe from swine flu.

“So far, there is no report of any Filipino in this consular jurisdiction among the confirmed cases," he said. There are 165 human cases of the said flu in Canada.

In Barcelona, Spain, the Philippine Consulate there announced a hotline (628 472 866) which Filipinos could contact in case they have any information or questions on A/H1N1.

It also issued an advisory to the Filipino community. There are 57 confirmed cases of the A/H1N1 strain in Spain.

Philippine Ambassador to London Edgardo Espiritu personally appeared on Filipino cable television to emphasize the need for the Filipinos in the United Kingdom to take precautionary measures.

In Berne, Switzerland, the Philippine Embassy has scheduled a meeting with officials of Roche Pharmaceuticals to discuss the effectiveness of Tamiflu and Relenza in combating A/H1N1.

The two drugs are said to be the cure for the flu strain.

But Ambassador Maria Theresa Lazaro said there have been resistance fears raised about Tamiflu in Switzerland. The meeting was set for May 19.

In Hong Kong, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.’s (PLDT) SMART 1528 and Vodafone Smartone’s Barkadahan sa Smartone agreed to the Philippine Consulate’s request for them to issue regular SMS (text) broadcasts to remind the Filipino community to take precautionary measures.

There are three Filipinos quarantined at the Metropark Hotel in Wanchai, Hong Kong. They are in good condition and will be released Friday.

Consul General Claro Cristobal said HKSARG requested post to review the Filipino version of a pamphlet on A/H1N1.

“Post made revisions and submitted the enclosed pamphlet to the government," he said.

In Dili, Philippine authorities are coordinating with Filipino United Nations volunteer physicians who are detailed at the Guido Valadres National Hospital there.

“Should any suspected case be reported, particularly if a Filipino is involved, Post would immediately be informed," ad interim Charge d’Affaires Ariz Severino Convalecer said.

He added that the post’s warden system, which was established following the 2006 crisis, has been reactived.

The warden system consists of community leaders who are long-time residents of Timor-Leste and could assist the Embassy in the execution of its contingency plan for crisis situations.

The wardens were also tapped to disseminate advisories and other useful information to the Filipino community.

Also, the Embassy maintains close contact with the WHO, the UN Population Fund and the International Committee of the Red Cross which have offices in Dili.

In Shanghai, the Philippine Consulate General issued a swine flu advisory to the Filipinos there as well as in the provinces it covers.

“Post will closely monitor updates regarding the outbreak in order to issue warnings if necessary," Consul General Maria Rowena Mendoza Sanchez said. - GMANews.TV

[JudeD]

[kiretoce]

My naive answer would be somewhere in Europe.

[tonyboy]

Originally Posted by kiretoce

My naive answer would be somewhere in Europe.

my educated guess...philippine embassy in stockholm, sweden...

cuz this photo...

looks like this...

The Helsingborg string ensemble plays Filipino and classical music during the diplomatic reception and dinner buffet at Villa Pauli.

source

[JudeD]

Originally Posted by tonyboy

my educated guess...philippine embassy in stockholm, sweden...

cuz this photo...

looks like this...


source

wow! how'd you trace that photo!? parang kang interpol haha!

it's not actually at the embassy itself (which is in gamla stan, the old center of stockholm), but at sort of like the country club (villa pauli) in the area where the ambassador's residence is (djursholm, a posh suburb where a lot of diplomats and even members of abba and roxette live).

[r93k401]

Philippine embassy, the Hague, Netherlands


dito ba nagoopisina si joma?

[tonyboy]

[Maxxclip]

Originally Posted by r93k401

Philippine embassy, the Hague, Netherlands

dito ba nagoopisina si joma?

good question

[JudeD]

out now! expat magazine's latest issue featuring ambassador's wives

[kiretoce]

Hey Jude!

Glad you're back! Can you list the names (or at least just give us the countries where they're from) the spouses for us, please?

Thanks!