What is a diplomat?

Every now and then I’d meet a kababayan who would ask probing questions on what brought me to New York. Was I petitioned? Am I an American citizen? Here for a work visa or a green card holder? A new friend happened to ask one of these questions. Since I do not fall into any of these categories, I told her I am married to a diplomat and we are here for another foreign assignment.

Quite puzzled, she asked me, “What is a diplomat?” I was baffled that the job did not ring a bell. I explained that a diplomat works for our government and just as I was thinking of how to describe a diplomat’s tasks in simpler terms, she immediately asked which government agency. The DFA, I said. “Ah sa passports,” she nonchalantly said. I often encounter this more common association of our DFA with passports so I enriched our conversation to say that passport processing is only one of the many important duties under the DFA.

I realized that even in my elementary grades I never heard any of my classmates say: someday, I want to be a diplomat. It was mostly I want to be a lawyer, a doctor, a teacher, an engineer or, for the most precocious fellow in class probably, I want to be a scientist.

Nor do I recall someone say I want to be an ambassador. It was not popular, in our generation at least.

In explaining a diplomat’s job to my friend, I instead told her bits and pieces of our life in the diplomatic service. Stories and anecdotes would help her appreciate the job better, instead of saying that it is a diplomat’s responsibility to ensure strong bilateral relations between the Philippines and his or her country of assignment. Besides, it would be quite a challenge for me to expound on a Filipino diplomat’s duty, that is, to passionately pursue the three pillars of Philippine foreign policy – one that is centered on advancing our interests in the areas of national security, economic policy and the protection of the rights and welfare of overseas Filipinos.

I focused more on the last pillar and told her of how, almost 20 years ago, there were around 200,000 OFWs in Hong Kong with majority of them working in homes.

Diplomats in the consulate, especially in the Assistance to Nationals (ATN)