CX's Hello and Goodbye!

Cathay Pacific Cebu outgoing manager Eddie Kong, who is well-liked and considered as the “guy with a thousand smiles,” was an honoree along with the incoming Cebu Port manager Vickie Ning Kong Yue, at a cocktail

party held at the

Grand Ballroom of the

Marco Polo Plaza Hotel.

Actually, Eddie was moving back to Hong Kong and Vickie is taking over his position. Vickie is not a first timer in the country since in 2003 she was Assistant to the Country Manager in Manila. She stayed here for a year and then moved back to Hong Kong as Product Officer. She even got her scuba diving license in Manila.

Before her Cebu assignment, she was Assistant Manager Cargo Planning and Customer Relations manager-Development and Strategy.

Entertainment during the party was provided by Latino-looking dancers who were fantastic in executing the samba and mambo numbers. The Latin-themed cocktail party would have been a wondrous colorful affair but sad to say, only a handful came in Latin costumes.

Anyways, to Vickie, welcome to Cebu and may your stay be as pleasant and wonderful as your predecessors had experienced in this Queen City of the South!

* * *

Speaking of despedidas, we would have cried a river when well-liked DFA Usec Frank L. Benedicto bid goodbye to some 23 media practitioners (which Sam Costanilla gathered) over lunch at the Mandarin restaurant last August 16.

The good-natured Frank has since left for his new assignment as the foreign relations officer of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. Of course, he was with his wife Consul Tina Benedicto when he left for India.

We recall that when Ambassador Benedicto was assigned in Singapore, our group was invited to visit the Lion City. That was our first time to visit the place. Then he was Ambassador Extraordinary to the Republic of Korea. He also had a stint in the Federative Republic of Brazil, after which, from 1998 to 2005, he was the Philippine Ambassador to Canada until he was called to serve as Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs for two and a half years. To our dear friend Frank, may you have a wonderful stay in India and God bless!