Hindsight, Insight and Foresight of an Exceptional Diplomat

Philippine Ambassador to Israel Neal Imperial

Time becomes more precious as one progressively assumes higher position. When I heard Philippine Ambassador to Israel Neal Imperial was completing his M.A. on Government specializing in Counter-Terrorism and Homeland Security at the Institute for Counter Terrorism (ICT) at Reichman University Israel, I have nothing but absolute respect for Ambassador Neal.

The Ambassador’s pursuit of higher studies is an indication of the kind of diplomat we have in Israel. He is driven, robust and protectively passionate about the Philippines. There are hundreds of Philippine diplomats at any given time yet how many of them do we even know? Ambassador Neal is one of those many diplomats assigned to different parts of the world whom we should know more of. They serve the Philippines and Filipinos wherever they are assigned to with day to day hard work - weekends and risks included.

What I admire about Ambassador Neal is his heart-centered leadership, his wise view on almost any topic and his unabridged love for his countrymen and the Philippines. Let us learn from his intelligent yet compassionate hindsight, insight and foresight.

FMAG: From a degree in Economics at Ateneo de Manila University to a master’s degree in International Studies at the University of the Philippines and now an M.A. on Government – please share your pathway to foreign service.

Ambassador Neal Imperial: It was a trip to the US on my third year in university that opened my eyes to the exciting world of international relations. Together with other young leaders from Southeast Asia, I was chosen to join a leadership program for two months, which included observing the 1988 US presidential elections and political system.

I met young leaders from Southeast Asia and realized that the Philippines had more in common with its neighbors in Asia than with the West. In our visits to Georgetown University and the University of Virginia, I suddenly found myself representing the Philippines in talks and debates with foreigners and, in a very intense way, defending the honor and reputation of our country just two years after the EDSA Revolution.

Ambassador Neal Imperial (left) and Undersecretary Ernesto C. Abella (left) with “ Manilaners” Mrs. Margot Pins Kestenbaum (2nd from left) and Mr. Max Weissler (2nd from right). Behind are the two stand-in figures of President Manuel L. Quezon, which form part of the Embassy exhibition.

DFA Undersecretary for Strategic Communications and Research Ernesto C. Abella (center), Philippine Ambassador to Israel Neal Imperial (left), and Mr. Yaron Mayer, Director for Southeast Asia Department of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (right) during the Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony to inaugurate the Balai Quezon (Quezon House) and launch the exhibition entitled “The Philippines and Israel: An Enduring Friendship, A Growing Partnership”.

I realized then that being considered my country’s representative in those forums was an excellent platform for advocating one’s ideas and ideals, but it also carried with it a larger sense of responsibility to uphold national pride. And so, without being fully conscious about it, I found myself playing the role of a Filipino diplomat, but minus the suit and tie, the training, and the trade craft.

My first-hand experience of a terrorist attack on our own ambassador in Indonesia in 2000 awakened me to the dangers of jihadist terrorism and the need to understand it better, as well as to find ways to counter the spread of its cancerous ideology. In 2017, the five-month Marawi Siege in the heart of Mindanao by ISIS militants underscored the urgency of improving our tools to combat this major global security threat.

At great cost to our brave soldiers who defeated the fanatics, we came to realize that radical Islam cannot be stopped by Utopian and legalistic approaches, not by appeals for dialogue, unity, peace and brotherhood, nor by conventional military methods, but only through a systematic and comprehensive counter-terrorism campaign at all levels of society.

Israel, which has been battling terrorism for decades quite successfully, is the perfect place to study this relatively new sub-field of security studies. My professors in the last three semesters have been the top experts and “titans” in the field – Bryan Jenkins, Bruce Hoffman, Boaz Ganor, Eitan Azani, plus a host of ex-IDF and Mossad specialists who had first-hand experience in battling various terrorist actors in the Middle East.

FMAG: May you share some highlights of your postings in Indonesia, Singapore and Manila that had influenced your leadership role as Philippine’s Ambassador to Israel?

ANI: Other than my wedding, the highlight of my posting in Indonesia was the Jakarta riots of 1998 that led to the downfall of President Soeharto. It was a big crisis that required a tremendous amount of personal sacrifice and focus from a junior officer on his first foreign assignment.

I did not sleep for four straight days as our embassy hotline wouldn’t stop ringing. I ended up being interviewed by ABS-CBN’s Ted Failon and DZRH because my boss, Ambassador Eusebio Abaquin, was too busy bravely leading the evacuation of Filipinos at the airport. Fortunately, we were able to evacuate more than a thousand people and no Filipino was hurt.

Sixteen years later, the Department of Foreign Affairs sent me to Israel in the middle of the Gaza War in July 2014 with the instruction to evacuate as many Filipinos as possible from the bombarded territory. In between rocket attacks into Israel, I led a rescue team from the embassy to the Gaza border and made sure that the team members were well-trained, worked well together, had full logistical support and a back-up plan.

We had three evacuation runs and safely extracted 32 Filipinos and their Palestinian spouses from Gaza. They were eventually flown into the Philippines via Jordan. My first-hand experience in Jakarta proved helpful in avoiding potential problems and risks to my team and gave me the confidence to lead the evacuation.

In Singapore, I learned that an effective campaign is needed in order to fully protect the rights of Filipino workers. This required patience, a strategy, and a long-term view. We campaigned for a mandatory day off for the 90,000 Filipino domestic workers in the city-state. After a ten-year campaign by the Philippines near the end of my term there as Consul General, my Ambassador and I received news that the Singapore government had finally passed a new law that ensures domestic workers would get one day off per week. We were ecstatic.

I applied the same patient but strategic approach we used in Singapore to the campaign for a landmark labor agreement for the more than 20,000 Filipino caregivers in Israel. The agreement effectively removes recruitment agencies from the recruitment process, thereby preventing them from imposing exorbitant illegal fees to those who wish to work in Israel.

Once implemented, the agreement signed during the visit of President Rodrigo Duterte to Israel in 2018, will save Filipino caregivers an estimated $200 to $300 million in foregone illegal fees over the next ten years. So difficult and contentious were the negotiations on this agreement that it took almost eight years to conclude. It helped that I was involved in the process for six years and that I applied the lessons I learned in Singapore for a long-term campaign that required consistency and a full-court press on all stakeholders involved.

A meeting organized by Ambassador Neal Imperial with the new foreign minister of Israel, Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, (on Ambassador Neal’s right) on 20 August 2020. The other people in the picture are the ambassadors of Japan, South Korea, India, China, Thailand, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and Australia.

FMAG: As an author and a creative person who had even directed satires in the past, how do you blend in your creative side with your tasks as Ambassador to Israel?

ANI: My job offers a treasure trove of experiences and interactions, access to foreign cultures and very interesting people, including artists and writers, celebrities and charlatans, politicians and men and women of substance, as well as Filipinos in the diaspora from all walks of life.

Philippine Embassy officials in Israel led by Ambassador Neal Imperial (center, left) and officials from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs led by Chief of State Protocol Ambassador Meron Reuben (center, right) practicing social distancing and complying with the Israeli Ministry of Health’s recommendation to wear face masks.

As a source of creative inspiration, I would say my job is ideal for creative writing. It is a profession that sensitizes one to the nuances of human behavior, language and its meaning. It also teaches one to understand conflicts and appreciate differences better, and the constraints that reality, and its many ironies, imposes. The real problem is finding the time and place of solitude conducive for the act of writing itself. Pablo Neruda and Ambassador Manuel Viray found the time; so should I.

FMAG: As Filipino traits evolved through the years, which ones do you wish had remained and which ones were you glad had transformed?

ANI: I am glad that the bayanihan (Editor’s note: Bayanihan is a Filipino culture of helping one’s neighbor as a community) spirit is still very much alive in our country and even in the Filipino diaspora.

It is this generosity of spirit inherent in every Filipino that we need the most during the current crisis. This willingness to unite and sacrifice for others, for the collective good, must be tapped by our government to augment its limited resources and to lift the spirits of our front-liners who are risking their lives on a daily basis. We will need this can-do spirit to overcome the challenge of this pandemic and regain the strength and moral stamina to rebuild from the health and economic crises created by this black swan event.

We have seen the bayanihan spirit in full display during this crisis: thousands of volunteers raising funds for those in need, individuals and groups distributing millions of food packs, the private sector leading in acts of charity despite their business losses, and our own personnel in the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) helping repatriate more than 100,000 OFWs (Overseas Foreign Workers) to the Philippines at great risk to their health. The pandemic has hit close to home as not a few of our diplomats in the Middle East have been infected by the virus in the line of duty; even our well-loved envoy in Lebanon, Ambassador Bernie Catalla, was not spared and succumbed to the deadly virus.

Sadly, this bayanihan spirit is being displaced by a more individualistic and materialistic sense of being, the inability to think beyond the self, the family and the region, which has become the bane of many (though not all) Filipino organizations in the diaspora. I have always believed that we should be open to outside cultural and social influences, especially in this time of great technological change, but we should try our best to retain the good qualities of our cultural identity that make us uniquely and “finely” Filipino.

Our ability to adapt and willingness to work in any environment or living condition (whether in the freezing cold of Alaska, the deserts of the Middle East, or even in the high seas) based on economic need should never be at the expense of our identity, our history and the values we hold dear as a people. I believe that it is by being ourselves and knowing our place in the world that we can survive and thrive globally.

FMAG: When you fly to the Philippines, what are the top three things you make sure you have time for (on a personal or work note)?

As much as possible, I try to visit my mother, now in her 80s, and my younger brother in Davao City. I also make an effort to meet my colleagues in the DFA to coordinate work-related matters and have a mini reunion with my batchmates in the foreign service or my old high school and college friends.

These life-long friendships and relationships are what keep us career diplomats balanced, motivated, and anchored during long periods of expatriation. I wouldn’t want to become the Pinoy diplomat who subconsciously forgets his roots and starts thinking like a foreigner, secretly pining for a green card to do what’s best for his family, literally at the “expense” of his own country.

I also regularly buy some pasalubong (gifts from trips), which consist of native coffee, Davao chocolates and other delicacies, for my hard-working team at the embassy. I also make it a point to buy Filipiniana gifts for Israeli officials, particularly books by Filipino authors and fellow writers to make Israelis aware that our civilization is as mature, cultured and modern as theirs.

If there is time, I try to enjoy a short trip to a tourist destination that the embassy is promoting in Israel, such as El Nido, Bohol, Samal Island in Davao, or the Caramoan Islands where the reality show Survivor Israel is filmed. And I almost never fail to spend time with family and friends savouring my favorite Pinoy dishes: crispy dinuguan, aligue rice, laing, sisig, blue marlin sashimi, and lechon Cebu.

FMAG: Your only daughter must be carving her own path now.

ANI: My daughter, Gabrielle “Fiona” Imperial, is now pursuing her studies in political science (honors) at the University of Amsterdam (UVA). I am very proud of her. Something happened when we moved to Israel. From being unmotivated as a student all her life, she suddenly became interested in learning and taking her lessons more seriously. Last year, she graduated from high school at the top of her class and as the first Filipino recipient of the dux medal in Tabeetha School, an international school in Israel. Her name is now permanently inscribed on the school’s wall together with past valedictorians.

Ambassador Neal at his lovely daughter Fiona’s graduation.

FMAG: Who was your major influence in life and why?

ANI: My mother, Ditas, a retired public school teacher of 30 years, has been a major influence in my life. She showed me that work in government can be an honorable and dignified profession where one can make a real difference in the lives of people. She also proved that contrary to public perception, the merit system still exists and can work in the Philippine bureaucracy even if you are honest and follow the rules.

My mom is based in Davao City, where my younger brother, Chris, is caring for her and managing the family’s interests there. He is also finishing his PhD on management at the Ateneo de Davao University. My older brother is a lawyer based in Manila, where he is a partner in the Kapunan Imperial Panaguiton & Bongolan Law Offices, which he co-founded several decades ago.

In the foreign service, career diplomats all look up to the late Ambassador Rodolfo C. Severino, Jr. as an exemplar in Philippine diplomacy. I was one of the fortunate few to have worked under him in the DFA before he became Secretary General of ASEAN. He was one of the few Filipino diplomats well-respected by the Chinese although he differed with them often on many issues, especially on the West Philippine Sea.

We are still benefiting immensely from the legacy of his ideas and achievements, and through the many books he wrote and edited, including the now-classic Where in the World is the Philippines? and his magnum opus, Southeast Asia in Search of an ASEAN Community. In my view, his influence on ASEAN as a regional organization and on Philippine foreign policy is a lasting one.

But despite his brilliance and stature, he was always soft-spoken and humble, and never too busy to mentor and train the three generations of diplomats who learned their trade craft at his feet. He was a true statesman and patriot.

FMAG: Even Ambassadors have personal challenges. May you share the toughest personal challenge you have had to deal with and how you managed it?

My toughest experience in the foreign service was going through the ordeal of the 2000 terrorist attack on my boss, Philippine Ambassador Leonides Caday, the first Filipino diplomat ever to be targeted by a terrorist. A car bomb was remotely detonated by the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah just as his diplomatic car was entering the gate of his residence just 200 meters from the embassy.

The huge explosion seriously injured him and his driver, killed an embassy guard and several pedestrians, and totally destroyed the ambassador’s official car and residence, as well as the Bulgarian embassy nearby. For the next six months we lived in total fear of another attack even as we had to care for our critically injured ambassador, coordinate the investigation with the Indonesian police, and help manage the security and safety needs of the embassy’s personnel and their families.

Everyone in the embassy was under tremendous stress and pressure and that took a toll on me as a junior officer, especially since I felt that we did not receive the needed support from the DFA leadership at such a critical time. I also realized that even diplomats from a friendly country like the Philippines could be the prime target of a terrorist attack. After all, there is no diplomatic immunity from a car bomb or a bullet.

FMAG: If you have the power to grant a wish to the Philippines, what would that be?

ANI: My wish is for the world to develop a safe Covid-19 vaccine immediately, and for the vaccine to be made available to the Philippines and the rest of the world expeditiously. The sooner we can overcome the pandemic, the faster our economy can return to its growth trajectory with substantially less human loss and economic damage. For now, we must follow the health advisories and practice social discipline to minimize the pandemic’s impact.

In the next 25 years, my vision and wish for our beloved country remains the same – for it to become a middle power able to secure its sovereignty and fully harness its maritime domain and to define its geo-strategic place in Asia. The only way to achieve this is to fully develop the economy and improve competitiveness, ease economic inequality, build our defence capabilities, and strengthen national cohesion. A resilient country and a united people are the best deterrence against internal and external threats, particularly “frenemies” that covet the vast wealth and strategic locus of our country.

FMAG: If you can advise your 25-year old self, what would you say?

ANI: I would advise my younger self to spend more quality time with my late father, and to encourage him to quit smoking and to have a healthier lifestyle so he could experience what it would be like to be a grandfather to my daughter and my eldest brother’s daughter. My father died in 1997 when he was only 64, before any of his sons were married. He always wanted to have a daughter so he would have loved playing with his grand kids.