Tonight, December 27, I will be flying home to celebrate our mother Yit’s 88th birthday on December 30 in LA (Philippines). That’s Legazpi, Albay. My three overseas-based sisters from Southern California, Las Vegas and Toronto are already in LA. They arrived on separate dates. A fourth sister, our youngest who used to be an expat, and her husband went to LA on December 23 via land trip from Metro Manila with our son who is now a professional.
Our last family reunion was in August 2018 when our youngest sister Judith got married to Jonathan A. Prior to the wedding our other reunions were in December 2014 and December 2004. We decided not to wait for 2024 anymore when our mother turns 90. This early I am thanking our God Almighty for giving us the opportunity to gather as one big Ante-Los Banos family again. This time in our hometown as the wedding and previous reunions were held in Metro Manila and Tagaytay.
There are so many milestones and experiences I am very thankful for which are indeed blessings from above and I would like to share some of them with you dear readers of The Global Filipino Magazine.
Personal:
My wife, freelance broadcast journalist Rachel Salinel, and I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary last May 16 by renewing our vows at the Church of Cana in the Holy Land. The church was where Jesus Christ performed his first ever miracle when he turned water into wine as requested by the Virgin Mary. We were joined by other Filipino and Indian couples who were part of the pilgrimage tour arranged by TravXpert.
We attended the graduation of our son Yuji at the Ateneo de Manila University on August 27 where he received latin honors (magna cum laude) and also the Program Award in Art Management (Bachelor of Fines Arts) as top of his batch. He is currently working at the Ateneo Art Gallery as Museum Education Officer. Next day my wife and I traveled by bus to LA to visit my mother and stayed there for three days.
Professional:
I completed 10 years with the Tristar Group last April 29 and was promoted to Senior Manager for Corporate Communications. When I joined the company our global footprint covered 12 countries and territories only. Today, we are present in 29 countries spread in Europe, Africa, Asia, Middle East, the Pacific, and the Americas. Tristar is a fully integrated Energy Logistics business serving the downstream oil and gas industry.
I managed the publicity campaign of our 4th annual ‘Safety at Sea’ conference in Dubai held on November 22. This year I collaborated with an marketing management agency for wider coverage in the English and Arabic media across the Middle East and other countries. In the previous three editions, I did the media relations work with the UAE-based English media. This corporate initiative of looking after the mental well-being of seafarers has won numerous CSR awards from the maritime industry and various award-giving institutions.
We were one of the seven finalists in the Small In-house Team of the Year category of the Middle East Public Relations Association (MEPRA) Awards. The annual MEPRA Awards is the most coveted event of its kind and is open to all Middle East-based agencies, corporates, government organizations, and non-profits working in the PR and communications profession. The awarding ceremony was held on December 8 at The Atlantis. We were in the company of three MNCs and three Abu Dhabi-based major companies.
Advocacy:
My wife and I continued our online awareness sessions with our Catholic community in the UAE by organizing the Women’s Mental Health celebrating International Women’s Month with counselling volunteer Arlene Lamatsch on March 26, Contract Verification and OEC issues with Labor Attache (Labatt) Atty. John Rio Bautista on May 3, and a Breathing and Journaling Workshop on September 24. We also launched a series of Financial Literacy sessions facilitated by Jhun and Reina Francisco of Dubai and Rommel and Maro Pacariem of Abu Dhabi in May and June.
I was included in the inaugural Philippines Top 30 Leaders on LinkedIn launched in June. I was recognized for my professional contributions in Tristar and as leader of the advocacy movement Filipino Excellence in the Middle East or FEME which my wife and I co-founded in October 2010 with a radio talk show on Dubai Eye 103.8 FM. The proponents of this recognition noted that “aside from being a successful professional as the only Filipino in the senior management team of the Tristar Group, Los Baños has always shared his time and talent with the Filipino Community in the UAE, with Filipinos globally, and even with Africans and Mozambicans in Mozambique as the Mission Country Coordinator of Couples for Christ.”
As FEME co-founders, we organized an online Town Hall meeting with Labatt Atty. John Rio Bautista on July 30 about the Online Verification System which was fully implemented by POLO-Dubai and Northern Emirate on August 1. The session was attended by community leaders, opinion makers, mainstream media professionals and social media influencers. The key issues discussed were shared by the attendees in their own mainstream and social media platforms for the benefit of the general public.
Another experience meant mentioning was the Louvre tour of the mainstream media practitioners and social media influencers on July 16 which I arranged upon the request of Ambassador Hjayceelyn Quintana who showed the two gold artifacts from the Philippines which were displayed at the world-class museum. The items were the golden funerary mask from Butuan Province and golden cup from Nabua, Camarines Sur.
My business trip to London for the Institute of Directors (IOD) convention in November with our Group CEO and Group Chief Administrative Officer was memorable, too. It was my second time to attend the event; the first was in November 2019. Actually, I could have been in London in May for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Awards with our Group CEO, but it was held on the same week of our Holy Land pilgrimage.
We all have our own encounters, milestones and experiences. We just have to be grateful to God Almighty for these especially our good health and good relations with our loved ones. Till then have a Safe and Happy New Year. See you in 2023.