ConGen Junever M. Mahilum-West: Upholding rights and welfare of Filipinos abroad
ConGen Junever M. Mahilum-West: Upholding rights and welfare of Filipinos abroad
A new Philippine Consul General has been appointed to Toronto.
Junever M. Mahilum-West has been assigned to the Consulate General office in Toronto.
As of last week, she replaces former ConGen Pedro Chan, who retired from foreign service in April of this year. ConGen Mahilum-West is now in charge of consular services for the sizable Filipino-Canadian population in Ontario (west of Kingston), along with the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
In the Greater Toronto Area alone, 172,000 people identify as Filipino.
The new ConGen spoke to The Philippine Reporter in an interview on June 5, 2012 about her background, positions, and what she knows about all things Canadian.
Q. When did you arrive in Toronto?
A. My husband and I arrived late afternoon on Tuesday last week. I reported for work the day after.
Q. Tell our readers about your background.
A. I was born in Surigao del Norte, which is a northeastern province of Mindanao. My parents are educators and are now retired in Hawaii. We moved around when my parents taught in state universities and schools, so we’ve gone around in Surigao, North Catabato, Leyte, and Samar.
I studied at the University of the Philippines, so I stayed a while in Manila, and took training courses at the Dept. of Foreign Affairs. I took a one-year course on foreign service at Oxford University in the UK.
I’m married to John West, who is an Australian national. He’s joined me here in Toronto for this assignment. My hobbies and sports are golf, bowling, and collecting antique maps and prints on the Philippines.
Q. Why did you enter work in foreign affairs?
A. I took up foreign service in university so it was a natural flow to enter the Department of Foreign Affairs. This was a long time ago, and until now I am still very interested.
Q. What other cities have you worked in?
A. The first assignment I had was in Paris. That was for six years. Then I went to Manila for two and a half years, then got assigned abroad again to Geneva, and that was for another six years.
Q. How familiar are you with Canada?
A. Not very, I must admit. This is my first time to be assigned to this part of the world. I’ve always gone to Europe.
But I noticed that the atmosphere here is easy-going and people have been so helpful ever since we arrived. Canadians are very straight-forward, helpful, business-like, and welcoming.
I noticed also that there is a very strong multicultural flavor in society here. Our Filipino compatriots are thriving in this atmosphere. What I like most is they respect your cultural identity and give every encouragement for you to nurture it, while at the same time, putting in those particular Canadian directives. I think that’s what makes living here very worthwhile.
Q. What are your priorities while at the Toronto office?
A. I will basically continue with the good job of my predecessors.
As you may know, we have three pillars in Philippine foreign policy. The first is political security, the second is economic development, and the third is promoting and upholding the welfare and rights of Filipinos abroad. The third will be my focus, aside from a little bit of economic diplomacy in the future. Basically, giving consular services to our kababayans here.
Q. Have you had a chance yet to look at some of the immigration policies that Canada has?
A. Not yet, not closely. Although I’m told that compared to the policies of other countries, the policies of Canada are more liberal and more open. But I still have to look at the laws and regulations.
Q. One of the major immigration policies affecting Filipinos is the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). Have you had a chance to look at that?
A. No not yet, but I’ve met some of our caregivers. I attended over the weekend events related to our Independence Day commemoration. I noticed that Canadian authorities attend and they always take note and give recognition to the contributions of the Filipino community in terms of care giving. I was there in Vaughan and the mayor attended.
The members of the Filipino community are usually found in areas where they are needed the most, like in health care and care giving.
Q. What’s your position on the conviction of former Chief Justice Renato Corona in the Senate impeachment trial?
A. We have followed the due process in the impeachment proceedings. It’s up to the authorities to implement whatever decision was made.
My personal view is that it has started a very good trend, which is transparency in government. We would expect more disclosure of, for example, assets of government officials, and in a way that’s a good thing. That is the most important result of the whole proceedings.
Q. What’s your position on the United Nations Universal Periodic Review of the Philippines on its human rights record in Geneva?
A. I haven’t taken a look at the results yet. I don’t know if the review is done. Is it done?
I know we have a delegation there and this is our second Universal Periodic Review. I cannot say anything much because I don’t know yet what happened there.
We have undergone that process before when I was still at the post in Geneva and our delegation presented well what the Philippine government is trying to do when it comes to protecting and promoting human rights.
Of course, we cannot deny that there are incidents where rights are violated by, for example, state agents, but it happens all over the world. No country can claim that there is no human rights violation in their territory.
Q. What’s your position on the reduction of Philippine consulates and embassies worldwide despite the increasing numbers of Filipino overseas foreign workers (OFWs)?
A. We never close posts in places where there the population of Filipinos is increasing. The Secretary and Dept. of Foreign Affairs have looked closely at what posts could be closed and the number one criterion in maintaining posts is a significant Filipino population. If so, then we don’t close posts in those areas. I also noticed that if these posts are closed, our relationships with these countries will remain and will still be covered from nearby posts.
For example, the posts that were closed were in Venezuela, Cuba, Finland, and eastern Europe. As you can notice, the population there is not as big as the Filipinos here in Toronto. So I could never foresee the Philippine Consulate in Toronto being closed in the future.
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