Up close & (almost) personal with Harry K. Thomas Jr.

He began his remarks at the Bulong Pulungan press forum at the Sofitel by saying the lunch served was “masarap” and that it would surely add to his “bilbil.”

Thus, the audience (mostly women in media) immediately warmed up to US Ambassador Harry K. Thomas Jr., who actually has purposely lost 85 pounds since he was first posted in Manila in April 2010.

Thomas immediately zeroed in on a weighty matter after greeting the audience: the recently concluded US Presidential elections, and how “deeply moved” he was that the campaign was waged between a Mormon and an African-American.

To me, it was his expression of faith in the American democratic system, where two men from groups that are traditionally thought of as “minorities” fought fairly for the most powerful post in the land.

Thomas, who came with his top lieutenants in the US Embassy in Manila, also expressed satisfaction over the “quick results” of the US presidential polls, “unlike in 2000” (when it took weeks before the winner George W. Bush was known).

Thomas revealed that in mock elections held in Quezon City among 24,000 Filipino-Americans, President Barack Obama also emerged victorious, receiving 76 percent of the “vote.”

He also underscored the US government’s stand in the alleged dumping of wastes in Subic Bay of US Navy contractor Glenn Defense Marine Asia.

“I want to be clear. We oppose economic, environmental degradation. We oppose illegal dumping. We are aware of the allegations against Glenn Defense Marine. We will wait and see what the results are of that investigation.”

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Asked by STAR’s Domini Torrevillas if he would consider himself an eligible bachelor and if it were likely that he would take a Filipino bride, Thomas said that just like President Noynoy Aquino, he would rather keep personal matters, “personal.”

But he did answer my question about whether he is for Ateneo or La Salle, as he is seen watching their games at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. His response was very diplomatic.

Thomas said his best friends in the Philippines are La Sallians, and they go out regularly for clean fun and some videoke. BUT, he has two Jesuit degrees, and his very first call when he arrived in the Philippines wasn’t to any government official but to then Ateneo president Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, SJ.

Ambassador Thomas with (top row, from left) Economic Counselor Joel Ehrendreich, Political Counselor Joy Yamamoto, USAID mission director Gloria Steele, Deedee Siytangco, Consul General Mike Schimmel and Public Affairs Counselor Robin Diallo; (front row, from left) Joy Fong, Frank Evaristo, Tina Malone, Alice Villanueva, Beth Tagle, Domini Torrevillas, Rina David, Jullie Yap-Daza, the author, Donnie Ramirez, Chay Santiago, Charo Yu and Danny Sarayot.

“So Ateneo is close to my heart,” he said.

Thomas is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and pursued further study at Columbia University. He holds an honorary doctorate of Philosophy from Loyola University of Maryland.

He joined the Foreign Service in 1984 and served as US Ambassador to Bangladesh from 2003 to 2005.  A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, he served most recently as director general of the Foreign Service and director for Human Resources of the US State Department.  Prior to that, he served as executive secretary of the department, during which he led the State Department task force that resulted in the safe evacuation of over 15,000 people from Lebanon in the fall of 2006. Hmm, shades of the movie Argo?

He announced with anticipation President Obama’s visit to the Philippines for the APEC  Summit in 2015 and patiently explained in response to Donnie Ramirez’s question why the American President  isn’t visiting Manila next week. Obama will be in the neighborhood — in Phnom Penh for the East Asia Summit, as well as  Bangkok and Rangoon (Myanmar).

“President Obama is going to the East Asia Summit to show his renewed commitments to Asia. Then he will go to Myanmar, an emerging democracy. President Aquino will be there in the EAS,” Thomas pointed out.

Thomas expressed gratitude to the Filipino people for the P10-million donation to the American Red Cross in the wake of Super Storm Sandy.

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Introduced by Thomas as the “most powerful” man in the US Embassy in Manila (which has the second biggest Immigrant Visa section in the world, next to Mexico), Consul General Mike Schimmel said 80 percent of non-immigrant visa applications in the Philippines are actually approved.

Schimmel, a former teacher, said of the 232,000 applications for tourist and business visas in the past year, 80 percent were approved. This, he said, is 12 percent more than what was granted in 2011.

Schimmel, who was once coaxed by a Filipino subordinate to introduce himself as “Hari ng visa” during one of his talks in the provinces, said that 100 percent of the applications from “legitimate” tourists and travellers to the US do get approved.

Asked why a lot of Pinoys want to go to the US, Schimmel said, “Because it’s more fun in the US!”

In the next breath, he said there are four million Filipino-Americans in the US and they naturally would get visits from friends and relatives from the Philippines.

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The USAID mission director for the Philippines is a lovely Filipino-American herself, Gloria Steele. A graduate of Maryknoll College and a former professor at Letran Graduate School for Business, Steele served as the senior deputy assistant administrator for the Bureau for Global Health, USAID.

She announced at Bulong Pulungan that the agency is spending $38 million in support of higher education in the Philippines. The USAID will be closely coordinating with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for the funding of scholarships, particularly in research, science and technology.

Another high note was provided by Economic Counselor Joel Ehrendreich, who said these were exciting times for the Philippines, which is “getting attention from the entire world, with its rankings jumping up.”

Political Counselor Joy Yamamoto said serving in other countries could be quite “depressing,” but certainly, this isn’t true in the Philippines.

Thomas and the team he brought to Bulong Pulungan (aside from Schimmel, Steele, Ehrendreich and Yamamoto, the team included Public Affairs Counselor Robin Diallo), are a mirror of the multi-racial, multi-cultural society that the US has proudly become. The best and the brightest in America today have roots in several continents all over the world, but their heart lies in the “Land of the Free, Home of the Brave.”

(You may e-mail me at [email protected].)