PNASC: What made you decide to join the PMA?

MAP: I took the entrance examinations like most young men at the time, without any real intention of joining. After passing the written exams and the two-week medical and physical examinations, I decided to go for it, and the rest is history.

PNASC: Please share with us your professional journey as a young military officer with the then Philippine Constabulary and how you landed in the diplomatic corps.

MAP: My interest in international affairs started when I joined the Secretary of Trade in the various local and international meetings. I felt that diplomacy covered a much wider area and the work that one does affect so many people’s lives. I took the Foreign Service examination, passed it, after much thought and consultation with my wife; I finally decided to join the Foreign Service.

PNASC: What comes to mind as far as personal and professional challenges and opportunities that came with your various assignments?

MAP: We have moved residences welve different times during my stint in the Foreign Service. Statistics show that transfers are the third most stressful event in a person’s life (first is death, and second is loss of a job), Tess, my wife, suffered a mild stroke while supervising our transfer to Manila last July. That I am still here after all our personal belongings had already been shipped and after I have bade goodbye to official and personal friends and family in mid-July, is another challenge that besets many of us in the Foreign Service. Plans change “in the exigencies of the service”, and adjust we must.

PNASC: How did you transcend all these?

MAP Positive Attitude. We treat the challenges as temporary setbacks. But life goes on and we continue to do things the best way we can.

PNASC: We really admire your “stick-to-itiveness” Must be your philosophy in life. What is it?

MAP: I believe that when you give, it comes back to you a thousand fold.

PNASC: What is the “one” thing you would like to know?

MAP: I would like to know what is the next winning number of the Mega lotto? (Chuckle) I guess there isn’t one specific thing, that I would like to know. Especially in this day and age of information technology and information overload, we always feel inadequately informed. We try our best to soak in on information, but our sponge of a brain cannot retain all… what with age and stress and other factors making one more prone to “senior moments”.. What was I saying… what was the question...?

PNASC: What is your vision (local and global) for PNAA/ PNASC?

MAP: I hope that the PNAA/PNASC can be an organization which is a cut above all the rest. It has a deep reservoir of people with talent, with good hearts, with gray matter between their ears. Between and among its membership, I believe that the group can think of things to do not only for the organization, but for others… the poor, the sick, the hungry in this world… more specifically those from the motherland, the Philippines.

PNASC: Thank you so much for sharing with us your inner thoughts. Any parting shot?

MAP: I reiterate my observation of PNASC as an organization that is disciplined, better organized, and with a lot of potential to do something different. Do more, Talk less. Be Felt, not Seen! Focus on the group’s objectives, not the individual’s.

Mrs. Paynor and I sincerely wish you and your respective families all the best of health, success and happiness in 2006 and in the years to come!

PNASC members’ courtesy call to Consul General and Mrs. Tessie Paynor in San Marino, California.