RETIRED Ambassador Shirley Ho-Vicario never hesitated when she volunteered to be assigned in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 2006.
At that time, PNG, with stories about cannibalism still persisting, was considered by diplomats as one of those “hardship posts,” where they would have to work in an unglamorous and an out-of-the-beaten-path location.
Vicario, who was fresh out of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan in one of the towns of Samar, volunteered to be sent to Port Moresby, because she claimed that nobody from inside the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) wanted the job.
She was confirmed on December 2006 and on her 45th birthday on February 2007, Vicario officially held the title “Ambassador Extraordinary,Plenipotentiary to New Guinea,” with jurisdiction over Kiribati, Fiji and the Solomon Islands.
The needed work
Port Moresby used to be a protectorate of Australia but gained independence in 1921. The island is sparsely populated, thickly mantled with rain forest, and timber is a major export, along with minerals and other resources.
When Vicario arrived in PNG, she inherited a staff of eight hardy Filipinos. She immediately went about making a mark on her career by initially refurbishing the ambassador’s residence inside the Islander Village Subdivision, which was constructed by the Elizalde Group of Cos. in 1974.
Vicario said she wanted the Philippine Embassy to be presentable to the international community.
“I had to refurbish and repair our embassy and the chancery. Luckily, I am a friend of the former ambassador there, Chris Salvacion, who was then-finance officer of the DFA and he gave me the funding,” she said
As the renovation of the embassy started, Vicario also quickly looked after the welfare of the 9,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the country, who were mostly employed as office managers, engineers, pharmacists, accountants and health workers.
Today, OFWs working in PNG have reached more than 35,000, and deployment has shown no signs of slowing down.
Vicario said the island is dependent on workers coming from the Philippines, who are the first choice for skilled workers.
“Our workers are the best in the world for multitasking. They speak fluent English and they seldom complain. I do not know why Filipinos in PNG never complain. They are happy there,” she said.
At the same time, Vicario also was a constant presence in PNG’s diplomatic community, which then was comprised of envoys from 24 countries.
She said the usual activities include attending international organization events and meetings, including those from the United Nations Development Program, United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
“It is a hectic schedule. Every evening we have meetings to discuss community activities,” Vicario said.
Business and politics
During her stint, Vicario became friends with then-PNG Prime Minister Sir Michael Thomas Somare. She convinced Somare to hire at least 50 percent of their skilled work force, specifically in their liquefied natural-gas facilities, from the Philippines.
Vicario said the country export only our workers to PNG, while the Philippines imports timber and process them locally into lumbers.
At the same time, Vicario brokered a fisheries agreement between PNG and the Philippines, which fishing magnates in Navotas, Malabon and Cebu used to start operations there.
Being so far down south and almost inaccessible, but to the most enterprising investors, PNG’s surrounding seas are rich in marine resources. It is here where many fish varieties are caught to satisfy a world that suddenly found raw fish an exotic and expensive item on their menu.
Although locals have their own fledgling fishing industry, Vicario said they could not compete with the Filipinos who also hire locals to man their huge fishing fleets, with some of them reaching 5,000 hired hands.
“The Filipinos and the local businessmen had a fish-cannery joint venture there on a 60-40 sharing arrangement,” she said.
But Vicario recalled that Filipinos involvement in the development of PNG goes way back to 1974, when then First Lady Imelda Marcos was invited by Prime Minister Julius Chan to their Independence Day celebration.
She said that, with no accommodation in Port Moresby for the Filipino delegation, Marcos requested for the Philippines to assist in building a hotel. That hotel eventually was named Ela Beach Hotel. It was built by tycoon Lucio Tan.
Vicario recalled the Marcos delegation to PNG, back then consisted of businessman Eduardo Cojuangco, members of the Elizalde family and leading Filipino-Chinese investors.
“That was the time when Mr. Lucio Tan discovered the business opportunity in Port Moresby and he went on to invest in scores of business interests under the umbrella Kenmore Group of Cos. (KGOC). It is one of the largest and most established groups in PNG,” she said.
Today, Tan’s conglomerate in PNG has six diverse operations, comprising of agriculture, automotive, finance, industrial, property and transport. It has a total work force of over 1,500 employees made up of locals and staff from different countries.
Vicario said Tan’s company is run by an Australian CEO married to a Filipina, whereas all of the finance officers are Filipino-Chinese.
In 2008 Vicario said the Philippines invited then-Prime Minister Chan to visit the country, during which he gave awards to Filipino investors in Papua New Guinea, including Tan.
During her four-year stint, Vicario received an award from the PNG government for meritorious service. She left PNG in 2010 and when Tan came to know about it, she was offered to join Philippine Airlines (PAL).
The corporate world
Vicario eventually joined PAL around the time Pope Francis visited the Philippines last year.
“I started January 5, 2015. Just 10 days of preparation before the pope’s visit. So I helped with the protocol. Philippine Airlines, being the flag carrier, we flew the pope to various local destinations and brought him all the way to the Vatican in Rome when he left the country,” she said.
She added: “We have an understanding like, I will be a consultant for the office of the PAL president, the COO and then, at the same time, consultant for corporate communications, government affairs, customer relations and marketing.”
Vicario said she reports directly to PAL President Jaime Bautista.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano