Our Woman in Chilé

Our woman in Chilé, Ambassador Maria Consuelo Puyat-Reyes, has so highly projected the image of the Philippines in Santiago, Chilé, that gatherings of top government officials, leaders in social, cultural, diplomatic and educational circles are not complete without her.

The ambassador’s charming, vivacious and outgoing personality has been a tremendous asset in her career as diplomat, not any less than her keen intelligence and fluency in Spanish. In fact, she is the only Asian ambassador who speaks Spanish, and in her typically generous fashion, she gives regular Spanish lessons to the Asian ambassadors’ wives.

Besides being ambassador, she is president of the Asian-Pacific Institute of the University of Santo Tomas in Chilé; she thus figured prominently in the round of socials which was occasioned by the visit to Santiago, Chilé of Monsignor Filipe Ximenes Belo, Bishop of East Timor and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, who came to Chile upon the invitation of the University of Sto. Tomas. He led in the peaceful, non-violent struggle for independence of East Timor from Indonesia; accordingly, he was welcomed as a hero in Chilé, and civil authorities, ecclesiastics, ambassadors and executives held a series of functions in his honor. Six hundred youth leaders welcomed Bishop Belo in their schools.

In all these activities, Ambassador Reyes-Puyat was invariably invited, and as the justifiably proud representative of her country, she hobnobbed with the best of them, including the business tycoon Andronico Luksie Abaroa whom she genuinely admires. Despite his immense wealth, Mrs. Puyat-Reyes says Mr. Abaroa is modest and unassuming, invariably taking on an incredibly low profile.

As president of the Asian-Pacific Institute of the University of Sto. Tomas, Mrs. Puyat-Reyes counts as its members ambassadors of India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Republic of China, Australia, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Italy, the Chargé d’ Affaires of Indonesia and the Consul of Singapore. The ambassadors of the Hispanic countries are likewise members of the Institute. Mrs. Puyat-Reyes has obviously widened her country’s sphere of influence and added to her own enermous popularity in Chilé as may be illustrated by the pictures and newspaper clippings on this page.