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| DCG Kit de Jesus |
Deputy Consul General Christian de Jesus will leave next month to take up his assignment as consul general of the Philippine Embassy in Seoul.
De Jesus, who will be completing his two-year tour of duty in Hong Kong this month, said he expects to report to his new post in mid-April.
“We do go to different countries to serve para sa bayan,” De Jesus told The SUN at the sidelines of the High Kong Flower Show 2017, where he escorted Consul General Bernie Catalla to the opening ceremony.
The soft-spoken lawyer-diplomat said South Korea would be his third foreign posting since he joined the Foreign Service 13 years ago, and he looks forward to the change with excitement.
“We’ve always had good relations with Korea. They look at us with gratitude for helping them during the war,” De Jesus said.
But he said with a tinge of regret that the good relations had been marred by the recent kidnapping and murder of a Korean businessman right inside the police headquarters in Camp Crame.
He will be working under Ambassador Raul S. Hernandez, who had his first overseas posting in Hong Kong as vice consul.
As deputy consul general, De Jesus was low-profile as he went about with his assignments at the consulate.
“Marami,basta,” he said with a giggle, reluctant to reply when asked what so far had been the most memorable project that he had handled in Hong Kong.
He agreed that the No.2 was always inconspicuous. “No one knows kung ano ang ginagawa niya. You don’t always see me like the vice consuls at saka si Consul General.”
De Jesus said his new assignment would be a change. “Sa Seoul naman, it will be different because it’s an embassy. It’s not a consulate,” he said.
The deputy consul general said his new posting would not be a promotion but just a regular transfer where diplomats get posted to different places.
“Iba-iba lang yung length of stay, minsan six years, minsan four, in my case, two,” he said.
Now, he was learning to speak Korean as well, having learned Japanese when he was posted in Tokyo for six years.
His nomination has already been sent to the Korean Foreign Ministry and all he is waiting for, basically, is the approval, and his plane ticket. Jagbyeol, DCG Kit. Mannaseo banga wosseo.
