Philippine envoy speaks proudly of 6K Filipinos in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH—Most of the 6,000 Filipinos here are professionals who are gainfully employed, according to Philippine Ambassador to Cambodia Noe Wong.

There are no domestic helpers or card dealers among them.

“There are so many success stories. Most of the Filipinos here are gainfully employed, not as domestic helpers, compared to other countries. They are managers, supervisors … some work with international groups like Unicef, UNDP, the Jesuits and banks,” Wong said.

Some also work in hotels, garment factories, restaurants and casinos.

“But in the casinos, they don’t work as card dealers. They are supervisors of particular sectors. They also do not work as sewers in garment factories. They supervise groups of Cambodian garment workers. So there’s a lot of difference,” he said.

“Nakakataba ng puso kapag sinabing (It does us proud when they say) ‘Oh, we’re proud of Filipinos here.’ They’re well-respected by both Cambodians and the international community,” Wong said.

The ambassador said the embassy had no problems with the Filipinos in the country.

While the documented Filipinos  number 3,497, Wong said, the rest of the 6,000 Filipinos in the country worked along the border Cambodia shares with Thailand and Vietnam and find Phnom Penh too far to go to register with the embassy.

He said he sometimes sends mobile consular services to the provinces “for them to register so we would know, more or less, their exact number.”