Ambassador Jocelyn Batoon-Garcia (extreme right) administers the Oath of Office of the new set of officers and Board Members of the Association of Filipinos in Thailand (AFT).    (In photo, from left to right: Mr. Rogelio Aponte, Secretary; Mr. Efren Villanueva, Vice-President, Mr. Amando Eufemio, President; and Mrs. Aurora Cornelio, Mrs. Cora “Kamala” Bamrungcheep, Mrs. Vigilia “Bella” Santos, Ms. Maria Paz Samelo, Mrs. Irene Eursurattanachai, and Mrs. Zenaida Pico as Board Members.)

On 1 April 2014, Ambassador Jocelyn Batoon-Garcia inducted into office the new set of officers and Board Members of the Association of Filipinos in Thailand (AFT).  AFT is the oldest Filipino association in the Kingdom of Thailand.  Working under a program calling for “New Directions” for the Association, new AFT President Mr. Amando Eufemio said “the Association’s new directions are not about rewriting its history of doing charitable works for the Philippines, but redefining that story of charity from being Philippine-oriented into being Filipino oriented and extending that goodwill to the Thai people who have generously aided the Philippines in so many ways and in so many times.”

Ambassador Batoon-Garcia congratulated AFT’s new set of officers & board members and challenged them to play a more active role in fostering closer people-to-people relations between the Philippines and Thailand. She added that the success of the political-security and economic community pillars of the ASEAN Community in 2015 is underpinned to a large degree by the level of social and cultural understanding between and among the peoples of ASEAN. END