20 April 2017 – The Philippine Embassy in Singapore, led by Ambassador Antonio A. Morales, visited the headquarters of Facebook on 18 April 2017 where the two sides discussed various areas of cooperation, as well as touch base with the Filipino employees in the company.

Messrs. Alvin Tan (Head of Public Policy, Southeast Asia), Roy Tan (Public Policy Outreach Manager, Asia-Pacific), and Paolo Cesar Lacuna (SMB Business Development Lead, Philippines) formally received Ambassador Morales and the rest of the Embassy delegation on behalf of the management of Facebook.

Facebook shared some tips on how Post and the Department of Foreign Affairs can maximize the use of this social media platform in its public diplomacy outreach.

Both the PH government and Facebook support the development of SMEs, whether PH-based or owned by Overseas Filipinos, especially in harnessing e-commerce.

Facebook also shared its other initiatives in PH, including digital literacy and online safety, disaster/crisis management, mobile financial services (in cooperation with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas), countering violent extremism and investment in infrastructure (in cooperation with the Department of Information and Communications Technology).

Facebook also has a country in office in PH, which employs a lot of Filipino professionals.

After the meeting with Facebook officials, Ambassador Morales then met with some of the Filipinos working in their Singapore office. There are around 20 Filipino professionals in Facebook Singapore representing various fields, such as IT, business development, IT, legal, marketing, media and entertainment

“Social media, such as Facebook, has revolutionized the conduct of public diplomacy. This has enabled the foreign service to instantly reach out to the public and be more accessible. Facebook can also be an important partner in harnessing e-commerce among Overseas Filipinos interested to become entrepreneurs, as well as for locally-based SMEs,” Ambassador Morales said.