Faced with racism and exploitation, the Philippines Ambassador to New Zealand Jesus Domingo has asserted the employment and immigration rights of his 'often unassertive' people
Organising emergency flights and passports for the family members of Filipino killed in a horror crash in Picton last month wasn’t the last task Jesus "Gary" Domingo thought he’d be doing before he finished up a six-year posting as Philippines Ambassador to New Zealand.
“I was up in Auckland at the time so I was contacted first by Interpol who put me in touch with the New Zealand police… the two survivors were Filipino so as soon as they were brought to Wellington I had my staff visit them to give them assurances.
“Then we were just basically helping to get the relatives to fly over. I got to speak with one of the survivors but he was still very much shaken up.”
Being on the ground and hands-on instead of cooped up in a gated-off diplomatic safe-house is something Amba Gary – as he’s called by Kabayan – prides himself on.
Fiercely outspoken (particularly on Facebook) for the rights of Filipino in New Zealand, an Overseas Labour Office was opened under his watch as he doubled down on trying to protect international students from falling victim to “false dream” promises of residency, and migrant worker exploitation.
“Because of our nature, this is one thing that kicks in… we're not assertive. So when Education NZ says 'if students have a problem they could just tell us... and I say yeah, but they don't because they're afraid of being kicked out.”
"Sometimes in diplomacy you have to be undiplomatic." – Gary Domingo, Philippines Ambassador
In 2018 Domingo made headlines after calling out the donut company Krispy Kreme following the revelation a Filipino woman had been turned away from the store’s opening because “she wasn’t a New Zealander”.
“I love being on Facebook so I posted this really inflammatory Facebook post saying ‘Krispy Kreme should be called KKK – Krispy Kreme for Kiwis only’ remember that? Then the Krispy Kreme management apologised and we're okay but I made headlines in the Philippines because sometimes in diplomacy you have to be undiplomatic.
“Now the thing was, I was on a roll, so I tried to leverage that and start getting the word out about these dodgy schools exploiting students but unfortunately it didn’t really grab headlines.”
Despite it not making much of a splash in the papers, a year later, the Labour Office was opened, a legacy Domingo is proud to leave behind, along with a volunteer ambassador programme to empower Filipino in NZ, a youth ambassador programme that partners with various high schools and managing the Covid-19 crisis.
“That subsidy scheme was very good – we had feared a much worse scenario, where Filipinos would have to go home in the thousands but it was just a few hundred.
“My colleagues in the Middle East they were practically operating their own airline… it was mass exodus. But for us because New Zealand was very supportive we only had to co-ordinate three evacuation flights.”
Amba Gary
“My parents made this cutey nickname from Jesus and Ricardo – Jessie car. It's like Jessica with an R.
“But my dad was a diplomat and when I was in school in the US … there was so much trauma with a name like that and there was a guy in my class, his name was Gary. So I thought okay, I'm appropriating your name. So that name stuck.”
In 2016 Gary became Amba Gary to the 80,000-strong Filipino community in New Zealand, Cook Islands, Niue, Tonga, Fiji and Samoa.
He said despite having one of the larger south-east asian populations in New Zealand, Filipino tended to be "largely invisible", compared with the likes of Malaysian or Thai people, who he said gained footholds in communities through their food and opening restaurants.
"I've always wondered why that was, and when you think about it, where do you see us? In DHBs, in clinics and hospitals, we're nurses and in care homes and in the farms and construction workers.
"So our trademark is people, not things or businesses."
He said the Filipino community identified strongly with Maori and Pacific, which was partly why New Zealand was a popular migration choice.
"We're similar in language and customs, and genetics ... also closeness of family, Christianity and just a sense of warmth. But on the flip side, so full of drama, so tribal, sense of time ..." he laughs. "Island time and Filipino time."
Work-life balance was a strong drawcard for migrants, he said, who chose New Zealand despite better offers of pay from neighbouring Australia or the US.
"I think New Zealand gives you a better opportunity to have that work life balance and harmony. So even if you earn less in the pay cheque, New Zealand has more to offer all round."
Domingo leaves this weekend and isn't sure what his next posting will be. As a career diplomat though he's encouraged by the appointment of Enrique Manalo as Secretary of Foreign Affairs under the new government of Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr.
"He's our best and brightest career diplomat, and not just a leading diplomat, he's really a multilateralist."
Domingo thinks there's a role to be played by the Philippines as global tensions continue to simmer, and as he puts it "New Zealand's other things in the neighbourhood", hinting that's where he'd like to head next.
"I think Philippines can play a bridging role because we're, proximate, we're physically close to China, but culturally and historically close to America. And that's what I think what I'm looking for, I don't know what what role I'll have, but I'm going to imbue the New Zealand Aotearoa spirit and I think there's so much there that's applicable to all countries."
