PCG exec relishes ‘rewarding’ HK post

Deputy Consul Genera; Deric Atienza

FOR Deputy Consul-General Deric Atienza the Hong Kong post, above all, means a chance to study and complete his view of east Asia.

With his previous posts in Russia, and South Korea, and having lived as a journalist in Japan, and as a student in China, he believes the Hong Kong post will allow him to gain a better understanding of the region.

“Feeling ko buo ang experience ko in northeast Asia. I was assigned to Korea, and I learned about a new country kasi I lived din in Japan for six years, and then I lived in China, and then I lived in Korea so I was filling in all the gaps in east Asia,” Atienza says in his first interview with a Filipino media outfit in Hong Kong.

He adds east Asia, including southeast Asia, is an interesting region considering the flashpoints as well as great opportunities here.

“The Hong Kong SAR is not an independent country, but it still operates as an actor in international relations so kailangan din ng understanding dyan in that sense so iyon ang maganda about being posted here is that it completes my understanding. It adds and supplements the experiences I had so far and para maintindihan ko talaga ang region na ito,” he says.

Although southeast Asia is a “natural neighborhood” for the Philippines, Atienza says east Asia is an important region for the country.

With the assumption of President Duterte in 2016 and its tact of pursuing an “engagement” policy in dealing with China, Ateinza also says being in Hong Kong will give him the opportunity to further explore the relations between Manila and Beijing.

“When you have one issue such as a territorial dispute, it does not dominate the entire bilateral relations. On one hand, may difficulties ka on one aspect of the relationship, but it shouldn’t define the whole relationship and to be in China in this particular time would be a learning experience,” he says.

The 47-year-old PCG official, who is fluent in French, Spanish, and Japanese, and also speaks Italian, Russian, Mandarin, and Korean, hopes to pick up Cantonese and practice his Mandarin here. He describes himself as a nerd whose primary interests are language and history.

While there are only some 60,000 Filipinos living and working in South Korea, Atienza says he is up to the task of the consular- and assistance to nationals- heavy post here in Hong Kong.

Besides wanting to be assigned to a Chinese-speaking post, Atienza, who will be staying in the post less than two years, says he is also looking forward to learning more and thriving in the post.

“As I said dahil mayroong ganoong klaseng delicateness, sensitivities, import or gravitas iton post na ito ang reward naman ay kapag nasurvive mo or even thrived and accomplished certain things, you go away from this post and you can say na you can handle other posts na,” he says.

On the other side of his Hong Kong view, Atienza says Filipinos play an important role in making Hong Kong such the cosmopolitan city that it is.

“Ikinatutuwa ko in the sense na kapag pumunta ka dito sa Hong Kong and, that is also how I felt when I went to Macau in 2014, wherever you go in the streets andoon talaga ang Pinoy.

“At the same time mayroon pa ding foreign flavors, but there are areas here akala mo na nasa Binondo o nasa Quiapo ka,” he says.

“The vast canvass of what Hong Kong is and that includes the presence of our kabayayan and that is so big that for you to actually understand it, you can not just come on a visit,” he says.

The opportunity to work alongside Consul-General Bernardita Catalla also convinced him to request the Hong Kong post. He says they used to work in the Office of Southeast Asia at the Department of Foreign Affairs. Atienza served as one of the directors, while Catalla was its executive director.

“Maganda ang rapport namin so she herself supported my interest in coming here and I appreciate and I thank her because without that kind of support, I wouldn’t have made it here. Hindi basta-basta na hihingi ka lang ng Hong Kong post ay sige pagbibigyan ka na, kailangan may support ka ng head of post,” he says.

Atienza joined the DFA in 2000, and after his training, he was assigned to the United Nations and International Organizations office. He went on a sabbatical and went to Spain to pursue further studies and it is then when he became fluent in Spanish.

Coming back to the DFA, he was then assigned to the DFA’s Forum on East Asia-Latin America Cooperation. Afterwards, he was assigned to Moscow in Russia as vice consul for six and a half years.

In 2010, he then went to Beijing to take up two semesters of intensive Chinese language training at the Beijing Foreign Studies University in preparation for what was supposed to be his China posting.

However, after the escalation of the territorial dispute between Manila and Beijing, Atienza chose not to go to China, and was then posted to the Philippine Embassy in Seoul, South Korea.

Comparing Seoul and Hong Kong, he finds the latter a more open city owing to its status as a major financial hub.