There’s still a lot of confusion as to what our diplomats do and I often feel it’s a disservice to look at them as people who only issue passports. While consular matters are important, a lot goes on behind the walls of the brutalist edifice along Roxas Boulevard.
It’s a quiet, uphill battle and the pandemic proved to make the challenge harder for the men and women of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). The good news is that our foreign service learned to pivot and get creative during the pandemic. Even better news is that now, things are back in full swing and they’re getting recognized for their hard work.
DFA’s Office of Public and Cultural Diplomacy (OPCD) is nominated for the “21st-Century Problem Solvers” award in Apolitical’s 2022 Global Public Service Team of the Year Awards. Apolitical.co is a private community for public servants and policymakers as well as a social learning network for governments. “The mere fact that we’re finalists – this is already an achievement,” said OPCD assistant secretary Ed Meñez.
His office was cited for the effective and creative use of social media to provide Filipinos all over the world with relevant information and assistance. The Philippines is up against government offices from countries like Australia, Belgium, the UK, and the UAE—all with bigger budgets.
“The percentage of our office operations is less than one percent – 0.30 percent to be exact,” Meñez said during an interview with his lean team of officers present. OPCD supports the country’s 94 embassies and consulates abroad with communication strategies and needs. The office caters to our domestic audience and the diaspora and, despite the minimal budget and the small team, they were able to do tremendous work. It’s quite impressive when you think about the number of people they are servicing compared to their competition and how they can do so much with so little.
Meñez also lauded the heightened interest in public diplomacy (PD), which encompasses all aspects of the job, especially communicating their work to the public. “The communications revolution has really changed the way diplomacy is done,” he said. “Traditionally, cultural diplomacy is resource intensive, requiring a bigger budget and involving heavy logistics. Due to the pandemic, we were forced to go online and found that we could reach a wider audience for a smaller amount.” Aside from creative information drives like a computer game that traces the history and importance of the West Philippine Sea issue, OPCD successfully mounted cultural events online and took people on interactive tours around the country’s cultural hubs. His team is now looking forward to institutionalizing improvements that were made during the pandemic.
“It’s also important that we share with the public the other aspects of our job and it’s critical that we emphasize all these aspects are important,” said Gonaranao Musor, deputy assistant secretary. “We do more than issue passports so we have to let them know about the other aspects like national security, or economic diplomacy—they’re also important because they affect daily lives, from job security to protecting our sovereignty.”
Those who wish to support our country’s PD team can vote at apolitical.co/pages/team-of-the-year-2022-21st-century-problem-solvers. Voting ends on Jan. 6, 2023.
Bold moves beyond passports
It’s been a good year for Philippine Ambassador to the Netherlands J Eduardo Malaya. After hosting a successful Christmas event in The Hague featuring Filipino singing duo The Nightingales, his election as the head of the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s (PCA) Administrative Council for 2023-2024 was also announced. The council is the PCA’s governing body with representatives from 122 member states.
The PCA was the registry for the South China Sea Arbitration Case, which affirmed—with finality—the Philippines’ maritime entitlements in the West Philippine Sea.
‘We do more than issue passports so we have to let them know about the other aspects like national security, or economic diplomacy.’
In Japan, meanwhile, the Philippine Embassy in Tokyo intensified its efforts to encourage more Japanese tourists to come and experience the Philippines. “The Philippines is a destination unlike any other. A destination, which allows you to create your own adventure, if I may borrow the title of the series of children’s books I grew up reading.” said chargé d’affaires (CDA) Robespierre Bolivar at the Philippine Tourism Business Mission held at the Ritz Carlton in Tokyo.
Almost 200 representatives of the Philippine and Japanese travel sectors participated in the business-matching sessions and over 300 guests—including Japanese TV and social media personalities—attended the evening reception. Philippine Business Missions (PBM), such as this, generate sales leads, secure business deals, and gather important market intelligence for sustained and effective marketing efforts of our tourism industry. It was co-organized with the Department of Tourism (DOT) and the Tourism Promotions Board.
In the field of science and technology, the Philippines and Korea rekindled cooperation work by agreeing to jointly provide funding of ₱5 million ($96,000) and implement two projects related to climate change and smart agriculture for three years.
The inaugural Joint Science and Technology Consultation (JSTC) Meeting was led by our Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT. The two countries have been partners in the field, together making strides in technology through partnerships between DOST and various government agencies in Korea. This time, the two countries identified great potential for enhanced cooperation, particularly on smart agriculture, climate change, and oceanography.
Ambassador Theresa De Vega said that the first JSTC marks another milestone in bilateral ties as both sides seek to deepen relations through science, technology, and innovation. De Vega also expressed high hopes for the invaluable partnership that will arise from the Philippines’ quality talent and the ROK’s technical and digital competitiveness in the sciences.