Filipino diplomats in China

In Shanghai at the start of 2020, as the life-changing COVID-19 pandemic erupted, two Filipino diplomats were given an almost impossible, unthinkable and certainly dangerous task: bringing home 100 Filipinos from Wuhan, China.

Mark Anthony Geguera and Sanny Darren Bejarin were posted at the Consulate General in Shanghai when they were tapped to be part of a repatriation effort to rescue Filipinos in Wuhan, dubbed COVID’s ground zero.

They were soon on the road, changing cars and drivers as they reached each province.

“Each driver could drive us only within their province, and so the next driver would wait for us at the border so we could resume our travel,” Mark recalls.

They spent long hours on mostly quiet and empty highways. Even convenience stores were closed, and they had to make do with packed food and instant noodles.

“It was only when I saw a road sign that we were five kilometers away from Wuhan that I realized I hadn’t informed my wife of this mission,” Mark recalls.

Eventually, Mark and Darren reached Wuhan, where around 100 Filipinos – teachers, skilled workers, and performers – were waiting.

After several days, the chartered plane bound for the Philippines left with Mark and Darren accompanying the repatriated group.

After two weeks of quarantine, they returned to Shanghai to resume their duties. The two would eventually be awarded the Gawad Mabini for their role in the valiant mission to bring home Filipinos from COVID’s ground zero.

Luneta hostage crisis

On the evening of Aug. 23, 2010, Claro Cristobal was at an event when Tony Nguyen, then chief of protocol of the Hong Kong Administration, approached him. Henry Tang, then chief secretary for the Administration, wanted to meet with Claro, the Philippine Consul General.

It was the night of the Luneta hostage crisis.

“The Hong Kong government is one of the most prepared administrations you can find in the world… I was making a list in my head because I knew they would have a list,” Claro recalls. Hong Kong officials had requested the Consulate’s assistance in coordinating with authorities back home.

Soon enough, Claro and his team coordinated a flight bound for Manila.

The plane left Hong Kong before dawn — between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. Claro was at the airport to see off the officials.

“They had a different look, but we made sure our response was empathy,” he says. Sincere commiseration marked the difficult months that followed — meetings with Hong Kong officials, conversations with protesters and engagements with the media.

Grieving under lockdown

Fluent in Mandarin, Mark Hanzel Lao often accompanied his ambassadors to key events in Beijing, including China’s annual Two Sessions, the country’s most important political gathering.

But the defining chapter of his six-year service in China came with one of the Embassy’s most difficult missions — the repatriation of the remains of Ambassador Chito Sta. Romana at the height of the pandemic.

Mark remembers how the Ambassador had been looking forward to retirement, a milestone he never reached. The tragedy made the mission heavier and more urgent.

“It was one of the hardest tasks of my career,” Mark says. “China was under a strict zero-COVID policy. Borders were closed. Every movement required clearance, and even moving between cities was nearly impossible. But we had to bring our Ambassador home.”

A small core team of three officers — including Mark — worked with more than 200 Chinese officials from foreign affairs offices, police, health bureaus, airport authorities and local government units in Anhui Province. Securing clearances for the remains, aircraft, flight path and personnel tested their resolve.

The Chinese government provided crucial support, helping navigate procedures despite strict restrictions.

“Everyone came together to make sure we could bring him home with dignity,” Mark says.

They arranged a direct flight from Huangshan, Anhui to Manila, bypassing Beijing. The Philippine Air Force transported the Ambassador’s remains. “At the height of a global lockdown, we saw two nations working together to honor the Ambassador.”

When the aircraft touched down at Villamor Air Base, the mission was complete.

For Mark, it was painful — but also an honor, a final farewell to a mentor who had guided them all.

These stories seem straight out of an edge-of-your seat Netflix series on straggler spies assigned in foreign countries.

But they are actually real-life stories of quiet bravery, hard work and commitment to duty of Filipino diplomats assigned in China.

The excerpts are from Intertwined: Personal Stories of Engagement with China, a commemorative publication marking the 50th anniversary of Philippines-China bilateral relations.

Launched online on Feb. 12, 2026, the book brought together “China alumni” — members of the Philippine Foreign Service and personnel of attached government agencies who had served in diplomatic posts across China.

There are many more stories in the book, which Ambassador Jaime FlorCruz described as a homecoming for those who once served at the Philippine Embassy in Beijing and the Philippines’ six Consulates General in China.

Project manager and head of the Philippine Embassy in Beijing’s Public Diplomacy Section Reiner Padua, who in turn, is an “alumni” of The STAR, said they hope to tell the Philippines-China diplomatic history from the lens of the many individuals, who had the fortune of being at the forefront of such relations.

For a reader like me, the book provided a glimpse into the journeys our diplomats undertake in service of the Filipino — a quiet chronicle of courage and conviction, and certainly a tapestry of love of country.

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