Celebrating Philippine-Australia Friendship Day

Two days ago, on 22 May, Australia and the Philippines celebrated our second ever official friendship day.

Last year we celebrated with a weekend of activities at the Bonifacio Global City in Manila. But the Philippines is of course much more than Manila, and we have much more to celebrate than we can fit into a single weekend. 

So in our second year, our friendship day activities will span two cities and over a week of activities. In Davao City  – where I am now – thanks to the local government, 21 to 27 May has been declared  Philippines-Australia Friendship week!

I spent Friendship day itself in Manila. I opened the first Australian Innovation Summit in the Philippines. This summit brought together 100 senior representatives and thought-leaders from the government, industry, academe and the private sector from Australia and the Philippines. From what I saw, this will be the beginning of more cooperation and friendships on fintech, identity authentication, banking solutions for the unbanked, micro-lending, digital health, edutech and cyber risk management.

The new seeds of collaboration at the Innovation summit will add to the long history of people-to-people links Australia and the Philippines share. Some of the strongest links come from Filipinos who studied in Australia. That’s why much of Philippines-Australia friendship week 2018 is being organised together with our Australia Global Alumni.

Many Australian-educated Filipinos are from Mindanao, particularly from Davao City, with some high-profile members among its ranks.  Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar is among them.   I am proud to see many use what they learnt in Australia to make strong contributions to Philippine society.

For example, two winners of the 2017 Australian Alumni Excellence Awards are from Mindanao. Dr Roy Ponce, Vice President of Research and Extension at the Davao Oriental State College of Science and Technology, received the Excellence in Innovation Award for his afterschool care project for children in underprivileged communities. He earned his PhD in Education from the University of Melbourne.

Mr Milton Medina, Director of Qualitative Studies and Biodiversity Research at Mindanao University, received the Young Achiever’s Award for his work on science education materials that students use to learn more about local Filipino flora and fauna. He received his Master in Science from Curtin University.

Over friendship week the Australian Embassy will be holding a number of activities that reflect the diversity of our alumni in Mindanao.

Earlier in the week our Alumni participated in Brigada Eskwela, highlighting the commitment to community service and education that the Philippines and Australia share and our alumni exemplify. It also reflects Australia’s long standing collaboration with the Department of Education at both the National level and within the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.

There’s also an event with the Philippine Eagle Foundation, which is led by an Australian alumnus. With a grant from the Embassy, the Foundation will work with traditional owners of the land, including providing livelihood opportunities for the Bagabo Tagabawa communities. The work was inspired by an Australian program that recognises the knowledge of Indigenous people in managing land and conserving biodiversity.

I’ll be visiting a number of cacao farms. I am very proud that Australian Alumni are using Australian made skills to run three of the leading cacao farms in Davao, Cacao Capital of the Philippines. 

For those of you in Davao this weekend join us at a 3-day weekend fair at SM Lanang which will show case alumni-owned businesses as well as information on studying and travelling to Australia.

For those who aren’t able to join the fun, please follow the fun on our newly-launched Instagram account: ausembph, and help us decide where in the Philippines we’ll take Friendship Day next year!

 Amanda Gorely is the Australian Ambassador to the Philippines. Follow her on Twitter @AusEmbPH