EB-FILCOM's President Speech for The Mayor's Reception

SPEECH FOR THE MAYOR’S RECEPTION ON 20TH MAY

The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Tom Hartley, ladies and gentlemen, a pleasant afternoon!

It is indeed a pleasure and an honour that the leadership of the Belfast City Council has found it proper to acknowledge the contributions the Filipinos have made to Belfast City.

There are more than 100,000 Filipinos in the United Kingdom of which, 60% are professionals, 5 to 10% second generation Filipinos and 10% are in the domestic services. Out of these figures, only 5% of the total Filipino population is in Northern Ireland which is around 4,000 Filipinos. Almost half of this figure is based within the Belfast Area working in a variety of sectors, ranging from ICT, aviation, hospitality and healthcare sector. Filipino engineers and information technology experts have been recruited in significant numbers over the past five years, about two hundred of these engineers have been working in the aeronautical and avionics companies in the servicing and maintenance departments as well as in the communications industry.

For the Filipinos, it has been a very welcoming atmosphere to be working and living in Belfast. Others have already considered it their second home country. This trend is of course a two way approach ==the warm welcome of the Belfast residents and locals and the Filipinos’ pursuit of career opportunities coupled with the flexible approach of Filipinos to adapting to the way of life in Belfast including the weather, accents and lingoes.

The presence of the Filipinos in Northern Ireland has been noted since the 70’s and we are glad that the local authorities in an effort to create a very pro-active community have come up with different programmes to provide cultural communities the opportunities to take active participation in events that will allow them to integrate better and share their culture’s heritage to the wider communities whereby a tolerant society can be nurtured.

Events like these is indeed an honour because we can see and feel the sincerity of the government in welcoming us and its interest to continue working with us. It is also our obligation to continue to be ambassadors of our country to further strengthen our nation’s diplomatic, economic and political relations.

Again, a pleasant afternoon and thank you at mabuhay po tayong lahat !

Katrina Albarico

President

East Belfast Filcom