Consul General Josue L. Villa

Prioritizing the Filipino

By Val G. Abelgas

A day before Ambassador Josue L. Villa was to fly to his new post as Philippine Consul General in Los Angeles in August 1995, he was called to Malacanang for a few minutes’ audience with President Ramos. By then, Villa had already heard so much about the Filipino community in Los Angeles. He found out soon enough that President Ramos was so much aware, too, of how factious the Filipino community in Los Angeles is.

“Try to do something about the Filipino community,” President Ramos told the veteran diplomat. “Work together with them, promote unity, and bring the Consulate closer to the community.”

With these words in mind, Villa, who by then had already accumulated almost 32 years of distinguished service in the Philippines’ foreign service, began his new assignment in Los Angeles. It was his fifth foreign assignment, having served previously in London, Seoul, New York, and Bangkok.

Villa never thought of becoming a diplomat when he was a young boy growing up in Gerona, Tarlac. He had always wanted to be a lawyer, just like his father, Rodrigo Villa. At the University of the Philippines, Villa registered as a pre-law student. But one day, his father, who had also wanted him to take up law, talked to him about his former classmates who were in the foreign service. His father’s stories interested him enough to make him shift to foreign service the following semester. But a law career was still in his mind, until his fourth year when he prepared to take the Foreign Affairs Officers (FAO) examinations (now known as FSO or Foreign Service Officers exams).

He was 22 when he graduated, but the age requirement to take the FAO exams was 23. So he had to wait one more year before he could take the test. In 1962, he finally took the exams, and had to wait another more year for the results, before he could take the oral exams, the result of which was known after yet another year. Finally, in 1964, Villa became one of the six who passed the exams and appointed to the Department of Foreign Affairs. Some 800 bachelor’s degree holders applied to take the FAO exams, but after a tight screening, only 200 were allowed to take tests. Only six of them passed.

Of the six diplomats in that batch, only Villa remains active in the foreign service. Two of them are dead — Mario Belisario, who served as ambassador to Rumania and consul general in Chicago; and Leandro Verceles, who served as ambassador to the United Nations, assistant secretary for UN affairs, became governor of Catanduanes, and commissioner of immigration. The three others have retired — Eleuterio Espinas, who served as consul general in Chicago and minister-counsellor in Vatican, and who went back to becoming a priest after retirement; Ernesto Querubin, who served as ambassador to Rumania; and Luisito Perdices, who served as director of protocol in the DFA with the rank of ambassador.

Then Foreign Secretary Salvador P. Lopez assigned the young Villa at the Office of Economic Affairs, where he served for six years. Villa was assigned to the London embassy while taking up a special economics course at the London School of Economics as a Colombo Plan scholar. He went back to the Office of Economic Affairs after finishing his course in London. While in Manila, Villa took up graduate studies at the Ateneo de Manila University.

By the time Villa got his first foreign posting in 1972, he had already been promoted to FSO I, which meant he could already be designated as consul general or chief of mission. In Seoul, Villa was First Secretary and consul general, which was the second in command to the ambassador. Villa served with distinction at the Philippine Embassy in South Korea for three years.

From Seoul, Villa was assigned as Minister-Counsellor at the Philippine Mission to the United Nations in New York, and served there for five years. During his UN stint, Villa was promoted to the rank of Chief of Mission.

Then came another long period in the home office in Manila, from 1980 to 1986, serving alternately as assistant secretary for economic affairs, and then as assistant secretary for American affairs. During this time, then President Marcos had named many political appointees as ambassadors, leaving many career diplomats stuck in the home office.

In 1986, shortly after the EDSA Revolution installed Cory Aquino as president, many Philippine ambassadorial posts were vacated by the political appointees. Villa was appointed as ambassador to Thailand, and served two full terms in the Bangkok post, from 1986 to 1993. While in Bangkok, he served in concurrent capacity as non-resident ambassador to Laos; special envoy of the Philippines to the Supreme National Council of Cambodia, headed by King Norodom Sihanouk; and Philippine permanent representative to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

In September 1993, Villa was reassigned to the home office, and was named assistant secretary for American affairs, a post he had held for three years prior to his Bangkok assignment.

In August 1995, Villa arrived in Los Angeles as the new consul general with jurisdiction over the entire Southern California, Southern Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas.

As consul general, Villa has no functions on a government-to-government basis. His functions are more consular in nature.

“I have more time to enjoy my job, because it is much less complicated than the ambassadorial post, which is held by the chief of mission assigned in Washington,” Villa said, who added, however, that in his new post, he has to attend so many social functions of the Filipino community.

With some 600 Filipino organizations in his area of jurisdiction, Villa receives scores of invitations every week. “It’s just physically impossible to attend all of them, but I do my best to attend the most number possible. This means about three to four social functions a day, especially during weekends. I ask the other consular officials to attend the other functions, but even they have to attend around two functions a day.”

But Villa said he makes it a point to attend every function possible, to make his presence felt in the community. “This is a great opportunity to link up with the Filipino community, to show them that the Philippine government, which we represent, cares for them. It is also an opportunity to rally them to unite and work together as one community.”

Villa’s top priority is to help unite the Filipino community, and help the Filipino-Americans achieve political empowerment in America. “President Ramos gave me specific instructions to help unite the Filipino community, that’s why I have made that objective my top priority.”

A few months after his arrival in Los Angeles, Villa summoned the leaders of the various Filipino organizations to a meeting at his residence in Hancock Park. Only a handful of Filipino community leaders were there, but somehow Villa was able to convince them to organize and handle preparations for the celebration of the Philippine Independence Day celebrations leading to the Philippine Independence Day Centennial celebrations in 1998.

A bigger meeting was held later at the Casa Filipina in Carson, but the meeting, as it is typically with huge Filipino meetings, was factious. However, with Villa mediating, the almost 100 representatives of scores of Filipino organizations were able to organize the Philippine Independence Centennial Commission for Southern California (PICCSC), under the leadership of Dr. Carlos Manlapaz.

“For years, the Philippine Independence Day celebrations were coordinated by the Philippine Consulate General. But this time, Manila officials wanted the Filipino community to directly handle the celebrations to make it a true community effort, in time for the centennial celebrations,” Villa explained.

Despite the usual intramurals among the many organizations affiliated with the PICCSC, the three Independence Day celebrations leading to the centennial year were huge successes.

For the first time in years, the Filipino community stood proud as one in celebrating the Philippines’ centennial year with a grand parade through Los Angeles streets, a trade and cultural fair at Echo Park, local celebrations in Carson, West Covina, Glendale, and other areas; various other cultural activities throughout Southern California, essay and literary writing contests among the youth, and a grand ball at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel.

Villa hopes Filipinos will continue to unite to enable them to achieve political and economic empowerment in America.

“Half of all Filipinos in the United States live in California. It’s regrettable that despite our numbers, Filipinos still do not have representation in the State Assembly or the State Senate,” Villa laments. He noted that in some states where there are less numbers of Filipinos, there are now Filipino-Americans serving in the state legislatures.

“When can we have Cayetanos, or Velorias in California? I hope that the political headway that Filipino-Americans have achieved in the cities of Carson, Daly, Milpitas, and Delano would eventually lead to Filipino representation in Sacramento,” Villa said. The consul general was referring to Hawaii Gov. Benjamin Cayetano and Washington State Assemblywoman Velma Veloria.

Villa has served for 3-1/2 years in Los Angeles, and would rather serve out the maximum six years in his current post. Normally, a career diplomat expects a transfer after three years. Late last year, Villa was considered for assignment in Brussels, Belgium, a prime post in Europe. Luckily for Filipinos in Los Angeles, this did not push through.

“My wife (Caroline Macias-Villa) has succeeded in convincing me to spend our retirement days in her hometown of Dumaguete in Negros Oriental,” Villa said. “Oh, I love that place. It’s so quiet, so peaceful, and the people are so nice.”

Villa plans to spend time with their three daughters and only son. Naomi, the eldest, works for a radio station in Manila; Deborrah works for a UN project with the Supreme Court; Martha (the only married child who has given them two lovely grandchildren) works for the same radio station where Naomi works, and Lambert, the only son and the only one living in Dumaguete, who has bachelor’s degrees in marketing, from a Bangkok university, and mass communications, from Silliman University in Dumaguete.

Villa plans an active retirement life — teaching, farming, writing, golfing, and some tennis. For a man who shall have spent 39 years in distinguished and dedicated government service, there is never really a thing called retirement. Just a little more time to do more things.