Eden Mae M. Castillo, college freshman, is the first awardee of the Philippine Ambassador’s scholarship under an agreement signed only two months ago by University of Indianapolis (Athens campus) Chancellor Vasilis Botopoulos and Ambassador Rigoberto Tiglao.
The Philippine Ambassador’s Scholarship provides for a 70% tuition assistance to a Filipino for an undergraduate college degree at the prestigious University of Indianapolis-Athens Campus.

Nearly three months after it was hijacked, the Greek-owned cargo ship Filitsa, with 19 Filipino and three Greek seamen on board, was released by Somali pirates in the afternoon of 1 February.

Photos of Ambassador Rigoberto Tiglao at the Greek government’s New Year’s reception 21 January 2010 at the Presidential Palace.

Hijacking of ships by Somali pirates had worsened in the last months of last year, and the Philippine Embassy and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Athens in all cases involving Filipino seamen are in close contact with the ship owners, managers, and manning agencies involved as well as with Greek authorities in order to ensure the safety of Filipino seamen in such ships. There are 53 Filipino seamen still held by pirates on three Greek-owned ships, and 22 other Filipino sailors in three other ships hijacked by Somali gangs.

Philippine Ambassador’s scholarship program is now in place in the prestigious Athens Campus of the University of Indianapolis (UINDY-Athens).

Ambassador Rigoberto D. Tiglao entered recently into a Memorandum of Understanding providing for scholarships and tuition assistance for Filipinos at the university with Chancellor Vasilis Botopoulos of UINDY Athens

The troubled Aetea Sierra will be auctioned 17 February 2010 in order to pay the wages of Filipino sailors ordered by the court in its order of 21 December 2009 unless the ship owner, Aetea Sierra Maritime Company, Ltd, can raise the money to settle its debts to the seamen.

The 12 Filipino sailors altogether will be paid a minimum of US$189,000 to a maximum of US$466,600, according to their lawyers. In its order of 21 December, the Court of First Instance of Piraeus directed the immediate payment of 132,963.32 euros (about $190,000) to the 12 seamen, representing their unpaid salaries up to 9 November 2009.

The remains of six Fililpino sailors killed in a fire in a Greek-owned ship 25 December 2009 arrived in Manila at 6:45 p.m. 2 January 2010 via a chartered Boeing DC 8 flight which flew from Venezuela to Athens, and after unloading the remains of the three Greek sailors killed, went on to Manila, after however an eight-hour delay in Dubai because of unfavorable weather.The respective families of the Filipino seafarers patiently waited for many hours at the airport to receive the remains.

With songs, laughter and food, the Filipino Community in Athens celebrated its version of “Paskong Pinoy” last December 13, 2009 at the Philippine Embassy premises in Paleo Psychico, Athens, Greece. Philippine Ambassador to Greece Rigoberto D. Tiglao and his wife Getsy Tiglao attended the festivities as well and enjoyed the full-day program prepared by the Filipino community and the Philippine Embassy staff members. Welfare Officer Atty. Venus Bravo was the Embassy and POLO’s lead officer, together with cultural attache Joan David, for undertaking the event together with leaders of the Filipino Community.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde died Tuesday following a heart attack. He was 51. Cerge served in various capacities in President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration from its start in 2001. “I and my wife Getsy are deeply saddened by Cerge’s passing away, “ Ambassador Rigoberto Tiglao, his former colleague in the Cabinet said. “He was one of my closest friends and comrades in government. Cerge and I went through many crisis-periods in government together, and he always maintained his cheerfulness and equanimity. He is the kind of person who almost always assumed the best in men.” “We deeply honor Cerge, for serving in the Republic for nearly nine years, and for serving the people most of his working life as a journalist,” Tiglao said. “We will miss him,as a friend and as a comrade, ” he said.

Mrs. Anastasia Manolopoulou is the Philippines’ newest Honorary Consul with jurisdiction over Patras, Greece’s third largest city and port as well as the department of Achaia.