The diplomat who has just taken over as head of the Consulate’s cultural section believes more is needed than culture and arts to change Hongkongers’ impression of the Filipino.
Vice Consul Robert Quintin said more Filipino intellectuals should be brought in to engage the locals at the intellectual level by presenting papers to the academe or lecturing in universities not only on Filipino topics but in other fields as well.
The 34-year-old envoy expressed his views in an interview with The SUN at the Consulate on Jun 26, Day One of his tour of duty in Hong Kong, his first overseas posting.
“I think we should import more of our intellectuals,” Quintin said, citing the impression here that the Filipino is more of a worker than anybody else.
“I don’t think we are making a mark on the intellectual level para masasabi na ‘Ah, may thinker pala na Filipino on this subject”.
“I think we could bring in more people to present papers to the academe here … maybe we’ll facilitate more of that para ang exchange ay hindi lamang sa culture and arts. I feel that more can be done on that matter,” he said.
Programs are already in place on the cultural side, so all that is needed is to inject more in terms of promotions, Quintin said, “kasi parang kulang ng focus on our intellectuals”.
In fact, he sees a window of opportunity in cultivating relations with Hong Kong people by having more programs involving them and more mutual exchange activities to push interaction. That window is the changing social milieu where public view is opening up.
“I think we have a window of opportunity to engage them at the intellectual level also, kasi if they see na ganun, they might think highly of Filipinos, they might think twice when they see a Filipino, instead of isipin na domestic worker siya, baka naman this could be an exchange student, this could be a writer, a novelist, an expert in the field of science,” Quintin said.
He said that to reintroduce the Filipino differently, Dr Jose P. Rizal could be “one starting point…we have a mark here.” By giving Filipino experts slots in universities to talk about Rizal or even on any topic, or having a professorial chair lecturer here, “siguro we could change perspectives”.
Another of Quintin’s advocacy during his posting here is empowering women.
“Siyempre, karamihan sa mga kababayan natin dito ay babae, so women empowerment should be conducted. So, yung mga programs na i-generate for women should be gender-sensitive, and kung anuman ang mga programs na related to the issue, siguro paigtingin pa natin, either by frequency or scale,” he said.
Quintin flew into Hong Kong on Jun 16, to fill up the post left vacant by Consul Charles Andrei Macaspac at the end of his six-year posting in Hong Kong.
Quintin’s wife, Vice Consul Fatima of the assistance to nationals section, took over Macaspac’s post as head of the political and economic section, while Vice Consul Alex Vallespin moved to ATN from cultural.
Born on March 14, 1982 in Benguet, Quintin said he should be teaching anthropology or culture now, having graduated with a social science degree, major in anthropology and sociology, and a minor in history, from the University of the Philippines Baguio.
Becoming a diplomat was not his dream. “It was not top of my mind before because I was a musician at the time, so, I was looking at trying to secure a day job so I could support my musician lifestyle,” he said.
Living in La Trinidad outside Baguio, Quintin performed at folk bars as a solo artist in the highland city and played acoustic instruments, particularly the guitar. He also taught young students about making and playing native instruments.
“But I was also involved in other musical endeavors, as part of a choir, member of an indigenous music group, advocacies in preservation of ethnic culture,” he said.
In 2010, Quintin began his Foreign Service cadetship after passing the Foreign Service Officers’ examination, a tedious two-year process that he started in 2008.
He also became fast friends with then Fatima Guzman, his batchmate in the cadetship, before “we decided to take the relationship to the next level.”
After the cadetship program, he realized that Foreign Service was his career.
He first worked in the Office of Intelligence and Security under the Office of the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs. He was in charge of security of the DFA’s foreign posts, linking the DFA intelligence unit with the government’s intelligence community.
From there he moved to the Office of the Undersecretary for International Economic Relations, preparing for the Asia Pacific Economic Community hosting in 2015, such as “sheperding initiatives in Apec meetings, kung ano yung course na kung saan gusto naming dalhin yung isapan (because) as Apec host we were also the chair”.
At the same time, he was part of the economic diplomacy unit, the nerve center of the country’s diplomatic posts abroad. He was in charge of the Europe desk and the Africa and Middle East desk, while being part of the Apec group in the national secretariat.
Hong Kong is his first overseas posting. a consular post he described as very far removed from what he used to do, “but I am expected to hit the ground running so, I have to adjust quickly. It will be a major adjustment for me but hopefully I can cope up,” he said.
