Remarks
BY
TEODORO L. LOCSIN, JR.
Secretary of Foreign Affairs
At the Closing Ceremony for the FSO Cadetship Course Batch XXVI
[27 June 2019]
Officer-in-Charge of the Foreign Service Institute Celeste Vinzon-Balatbat,
Colleagues in the Department,
Members of the Cadetship Course Batch XXVI,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning.
First of all, congratulations to the Foreign Service Officers for completing their cadetship under the Foreign Service Institute. This is a significant moment in your life in the DFA, as you stand once again at the threshold of a foreign service career.
You will find, for many years to come, that the Foreign Service will be a series of thresholds. After cadetship, you will start your service in one of the offices in the Department—another threshold. It is the one you will stand on for quite a bit, until you land one of our Foreign Service Posts.
By now you will have gained the required knowledge and skills for the threshold you are standing on. Beyond — I want to say the walls of the Institute, but it doesn’t have any because it has no place of its own and I intend to find it such a place by realigning the Budget – I encourage you to continue to learn by reading, and reading, and more reading on diplomacy. The experience of diplomacy – that will take some time for you to get – is best prepared for by reading about that experience. Diplomatic literature is rich and very well written, although you wouldn’t expect given the small horrors of expression in the profession. I urge you equally to pay the most careful attention to whatever task you are given; the devil of diplomacy is in the details; and the satisfaction will come from doing the best you can with the task — small or big, important or not — at hand. Call it mindfulness; living fully in the moment of a particular task: the Zen of diplomacy.
When you assume your respective positions at Foreign Service Posts, you will assume greater responsibilities. Because that is what the public service is: one responsibility to the public after another. And for which you will get small if any thanks. You are not expected to express, let alone act on your own opinion of a diplomatic issue; but try to form an intelligent one and then keep it to yourself. The day will come when you must make a decision: to obey blindly or to defend your country when the two are in contradiction.
You were tested by one of the most difficult state exams the country has to offer. You are in that respect special public servants. Yet you will be treated like any other public servant — with indifference if not hostility. And you will get little thanks for it — I cannot repeat this enough. The temptation will be great to treat the public in kind. Don’t. You personally may get away with it; but the institution suffers. It is because others got away with it that you will be treated unfairly for your service. Act as though you are the entire DFA as you want it to be regarded by the public. Because for that particular individual you are handling, you are the DFA. And abroad you are our country. Your conduct is all that foreigners have to go by.
Beyond that, you will represent our country in the international community—as diplomats serving abroad or staff working back here: the intellectual backup of diplomats so their words and actions impart respect to our institution. You mustn’t only talk and act like you’re efficient; be efficient. Not just seem honest but be honest — especially in the intellectual sense. And never lie for your country. The man who described diplomacy as the art of lying abroad was a lousy diplomat. What your foreign counterparts will respect is candor. They will understand why you had to take a position they dislike.
And always be hardworking — finishing the task before you as well and as fast as possible. Sitting on work is not a sign of pondering its intellectual challenges; but a picture of sitting on your butt. It is a difficult, and often thankless – I say again – job where much is expected but less is given. And that’s entirely up to you.
You are expected to perform your best at all times, and in all possible scenarios. This is not to scare you but to prepare you for the realities in the work of the Department.
Yesterday, we celebrated the 121st Foundation Anniversary of the Department. That is more than a hundred years of service and history. Today, you will join the ranks of the many men and women who have served in the DFA, carving your part however small in this great institution’s history. It has been a good history; much respected in the international community—if, again, rarely rewarded by it.
Lastly, I want you to remember that you are part of a team. Learn from and work with your superiors, your subordinates, your colleagues, and with the Department’s partners here and abroad. Build bridges — I hate that cliché, but it is a true one; I have seen it at work. Establish your contacts and nurture networks. The work is international; not solitary. Be the best diplomats you can be.
I take this opportunity to acknowledge the work that the Foreign Service Institute, headed by Officer-in-Charge Celeste V. Balatbat, is doing. The Institute’s role in training the future diplomats of this country is crucial. She has stressed the precision required of a country that, at present, isn’t the strongest in force abroad; and must therefore compensate by being the strongest in law and reason. I will do my best to support and strengthen the Institute in this endeavor. Once again, congratulations and Mabuhay!