Filipino News 161 July 2022

BUHAY
NZ
04 ISSUE 161 MAGANDANG BALITA | www.filipinonews.nz | email: filipinonews@xtra.co.nz | www.pinoynzlife.nz | MOB: 027 495 8477
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Every six years in Philippine
embassies around the
world a new ambassador
routinely replaces the
incumbent who is stationed
there. In April 2016 the
Department of Foreign
Affairs in Manila announced
that a seasoned career
diplomat who had an illustrious
career serving in the
UN was being posted to
New Zealand.
The high-power appointee
was Jesus “Gary”
Domingo, who has been
with the DFA for over 32
years and was decorated by
the President of the
Philippines for his role in
coordinating international
humanitarian assistance for
Super Typhoon Yolanda in
2013, promoting disaster
risk reduction and management
cooperation and
directing Philippine UN
Peace-keeping deployments.
To get an inkling of the
man who was to reshape the
traditional role of an ambassador,
here is an endorsement
from his friend,
Gerardo 'Gerry' V.
Eusebio, a Lecturer of
Politics at De La Salle
University.
“I have known Gary for
more than 20 years. He was
a student then at the
‘Out-ofthe-box’
Diplomat.
University of the Philippines.
Even as a student
Gary was keen on his grasp
of international and national
affairs. His sense of history
was likewise exceptional.
“When I left QC to transfer
elsewhere, I heard that
Gary topped the Foreign
photo credit:
Ayesha
Ronquillo
Service Officers Exam and
I was not even surprised.
Later on, I heard that he was
posted in New York as consul
and then to Saudi Arabia
where he worked harder,
ensuring the welfare of our
OFWs.
“We finally met in the
By Mel Fernandez &
Queenie Lee Tanjay
early years of the 21st century
when he was the director
of UNIO at the home
office, a high position considering
his age.
“To sum up, let me just
say that we are lucky to
have a public servant as
patriotic, pragmatic and
'out-of-the-box' as him, to
say the least.”
According to community
leaders we polled, Amba
Gary will be remembered as
an 'Ambassador ng masa’
- a people’s ambassador. He
is not perceived as a pen
pusher stuck to a desk in the
Embassy, because he has
endeavoured to travel the
length and breadth of New
Zealand periodically to
meet as many Filipinos as
he was able to.
Sadly, all too soon
Ambassador Gary’s term of
office came to an end on
June 30th, 2022.
During his tenure, 'Amba
Gary' (as he is affectionately
called) transcended his
fortitude with multilateral
relations and humanitarian
services through various
proactive programs championing
migrant rights and
welfare.
When asked by Mel
Libre, the editor of the
BAYANIZ blog page, as to
what he counted as his most
important accomplishments,
he listed the following:
a) Opening a Philippine
Overseas Labour Office
(POLO) in Wellington
b) Establishing the Volunteer
Ambassador Program
(VAMBA) – a framework
for empowering overseas
Filipinos in NZ
c) Establishing Youth
Ambassador (YAMBA)
programs in numerous NZ
Colleges with Philippine
High School Partners
d) Managing the COVID-
19 crisis – assisting
Filipinos in need and running
repatriation flights
e) Combating exploitative
immigration advisers
and education agents
As a diplomat at the time
when global statecraft was
challenged by a health crisis,
Amba Gary arduously
mobilized programs to help
our kababayans endure
financial and social challenges.
He regularly engaged
through social media and
online platforms, making
sure that every need is
always seen to, from health
to labour, immigration and
repatriation concerns.
As a staunch advocate of
migrant rights himself,
Amba Gary is remembered
for his clamour to the NZ
government to delve into
the exploitation of Filipino
students aspiring to a better
life here. Amba Gary
pushed for stringent codes
of practice to be adhered to
by agencies and institutions
in order for international
students to be “wellinformed,
safe, and properly
cared for”.
Aligned to this is his
assignment as a 'White
Ribbon NZ' Ambassador
in 2018 under the campaign’s
aim to end Violence
Against Women (VAW) and
to include men in the narrative
of promoting healthier
relationships.
The persona he built from
his fervour for Filipino culture
and public service
while also being pragmatic
is truly worth emanating for
the next generations.
All of his contributions
give him the rightful regard
to be called 'Ambassador
of the Masses', capping an
illustrious career here in
New Zealand.
Whoever will take over
his position has big shoes to
fill.
TIMARU – If there was
any schedule-squeezing to
be done in order to meet a
new heavyweight of the
New Zealand Pinoy community,
it was on that day in
January 2016 to be sure.
I was lucky to be given an
audience by newly confirmed
Philippine Ambassador
to New Zealand Jesus
Gary Domingo, but I had to
juggle my own time and
availability.
By coincidence, at the
time I was vacationing in the
Philippines to visit family
and friends and had a chance
for this breakfast meeting
with our new Ambassador,
who traditionally not only
represents our country in
New Zealand, but is also the
symbolic head of the 90,000
strong Pinoy community in
New Zealand, one of the
largest ethnic groups in this
tiny but overachieving 1st
World nation.
My advantage was that I
knew what the ambassador
looked like, from his pictures
at the Commission on
Appointments, but unless he
stalked my Facebook page,
he wasn’t in a similar position.
First Impressions
I saw him as a bit of
By Noel Bautista
everything: a semi-Spanish
mestizo, but unmistakeably
Southeast Asian in aura; cutting
a scholarly pose the
minute he walked into
Pancake House.
He didn’t have the most
athletic, chiselled body (nor
did I expect him to), but neither
was he a wimp.
Ironically, though he’d
never stepped on NZ shores,
he had the prototypical
rugby body. I’d later learn
he’d done a season or two
playing high school American
football.
He had clear ideas on the
future of Filipino diplomacy,
if he had anything to do with
it: use indigenous elements
of Pinoy culture, mix them
up with what works (and
what nearly works) in the
history of our dealings with
state actors and the family of
nations and never stop
evolving.
He believed and continues
A peronal glimpse:
Amba Gary Domingo
to believe that every Filipino
is a potential ambassador, so
that overseas and in the
global setting we do better
and in fact excel.
Paraphrasing his thoughts,
the Ambassador articulates
his Pinoys as suns catchphrase
whenever and wherever:
A thousand suns shining
in unison would not have
the same dramatic effect as
individual suns shining on
their own, comparing the
suns to the cleverness and
ability of Filipinos alongside
their overseas counterparts,
with the bottom line being
we shine best not with our
own, but when we’re with
others.
For this reason, Amba
Gary, as he likes to be called
by kabayan, would like our
embassies throughout the
world to make good use of
the OFW and migrant communities
to literally sell and
promote Filipino interests.
Governments and the diplomatic
staff, no matter how
inspired, won’t be enough to
tell others how to best
uncover and reveal the best
the Philippines can offer.
Half a lifetime over one
coffee
Why can’t we find new
ways of bonding and uniting
the Pinoy community?
Amba Gary is fond of saying.
For sure, basketball,
sportsfestsand socio-religious
and fiesta-like events
will always be crowd
favourites, but what’s wrong
with cultural activities,
short-story writing contests
and even Filipiniana
inspired fashion shows? It
doesn’t need to be any particular
activity, as long as it
promotes the best in all of
us.
And all this Amba Gary
told me over one coffee. It
might as well have been
barako.
It was that one coffee (and
Pancake House brunch) over
which I had my first conversation
with AmbaGary, but it
might as well have been half
a lifetime. His early life as a
diplomat’s kid, earning his
first battle scars in the
Middle East
and negotiating
over treaties
and statements
at the UN in
New York. He
had enough experiences to
fill half his memoirs and he
had so much more to do with
the rest of his career.
Yes, serving as the
Philippine Ambassador to
New Zealand, Cook Islands,
Fiji, Samoa and Tonga was
just the first of many milestones
for Amba Gary. But
he leaves unfinished many
ambitions for the Pinoy
community in New Zealand.
First of which is the manifestation
of his belief that
our community can be that
which shines brightest in
every sense of the word. We
have the tradesmen, entrepreneurs,
academics and
especially those who pursue
their vocations with passion.
We have all the tools to
make the most significant
migrant contribution to
Aotearoa and though he
doesn’t think it can be done
this generation, who knows
what the next can do?
Second of which is his
belief that our community,
for all its events, traditions
and organizations, is not networked
enough. A comprehensive
and of course online
effort to interconnect each
and every Filipino is not
only a noble cause, but an
essential one, if we are to
stand out, as we are meant to
stand out, as a community.
The third of all is personal
to him, but to have ethnic
Filipinos in the highest
offices of the land would be
something he would, as a
public servant, be truly
proud of. We are gifted in
the sense of being great writers,
orators and communicators
and to translate this into
having not just a bit part but
a major role for Filipinos in
achieving the dream of a
better life for all Kiwis
would be very worthwhile
for one of the most memorable
Ambassadors we’ve
had, Amba Gary.
Now, if we could only
have him for a second time
around the block?
Noel Bautista is the Filipino-Kiwi
Blogger of the Year 2021