The story of Charita ‘Tita Chari’ Bataan: Another of our series on Filipino lives in Greece

The Third Global Forum for Migration and Development (GFMD), hosted by Greece this year, was held in Athens on 2-5 November 2009 with the theme “Integrating Migration Policies into Development Strategies for the Benefit of All”. The Forum, an informal inter-governmental conference to discuss trends and issues in global migration was attended by government delegations, international organizations, civil society, migrant groups and observer delegations.

The second round of negotiations for the RP-Greek Social Security Agreement (18-21 May 2009) was successfully concluded on 20 May 2009, with only minor details still to be worked out in a final round of negotiations early next year.

Philippine Embassy representatives conducted a two-day OAV field registration and consular outreach service at Nicosia, Cyprus on 11-12 July 2009.
Hundreds of Filipinos gathered at the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) at Nicosia to register as overseas absentee voters. A total of 102 Filipinos at Nicosia registered as new overseas absentee voters.

Consular services were also rendered [...]

H.E. Rigoberto Tiglao, the Philippine Ambassador to Greece, was one of three guest speakers at the launching of Steve Psinakis’ book, “A Country Not Even His Own” at the Rockwell Center in Metropolitan Manila in July. The other two speakers were former close comrades of the hero Ninoy Aquino– former senators [...]

In the evening of June 12, Ambassador Tiglao and Mrs. Getsy Tiglao hosted a well-attended diplomatic reception at the Ambassador’s residence at Paleo Psychico.
Ambassador and Mrs. Tiglao welcomed some 300 guests from the Greek government, the diplomatic corps, representatives from the Greek business sector, and leaders of the Filipino Community in Greece and members of [...]

Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias and Mrs. Elsie Christofias led the guests in congratulating the Philippines on its national day. President Christofias engaged the Ambassador, Consul Kyriakides and guests in lively conversation at the reception held in a prominent restaurant in Nicosia.

The guest of honor was Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister for Economic Diplomacy and International Development Assistance Miltiadis Varvitsiotis. The ASPAC ambassadors led by Ambassador Tiglao and foreign ministry officials discussed Greece’s initiatives aimed at further developing trade with Asian countries, recent political developments in Greece, and Greek economic diplomacy and Hellenic Aid, among other issues. [...]

Ambassador Tiglao accompanied the visiting lawmakers to the Filipino Workers Resource Center (FWRC) in Ambelokipi. The lawmakers inspected the facilities at the FWRC and discussed the working conditions of the overseas Filipino workers in Greece, both land-based and sea-based, with the Ambassador and Labor Attaché George Eduvala.

World-renowned cardiologist and BPULS inventor, Dr. Helen Marcoyannopoulou-Fojas recently discussed how her invention works at the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines.
BPULS, a Philippine-patented invention, is a portable, non-invasive, and inexpensive apparatus capable of scanning the whole arterial tree and allows early detection of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs).