Ambassador Lhuillier personally hand-carried the Sabrosa mayor’s letter inviting Cebu City mayor Mike Rama to visit Magellan’s birthplace. I’m told the Cebu City Council has also issued a resolution approving the sister city proposal, and both parties are just waiting for an opportune time to hold the formal signing of the agreement..

While his current posting may be considered a “smaller” one with just a complement of nine personnel and no attached agencies, Ambassador Lhuillier (who also happens to be a Cebu native) says the challenges and the work are no less relevant than what he faced in Italy where he previously served. While diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Portugal go as far back as 1946, our embassy in Lisbon is barely four years old, having only opened in December 2009.

Compared to other countries, the Filipino community in Portugal is actually very small (less than 3,000), which is perhaps one reason why the Portuguese have a low level of awareness of the Philippines as the Ambassador himself noted. I have to give it to Philip Lhuillier who certainly has his work cut out for him in trying to increase levels of trade and investments between the two countries – and so far, it would seem that he is doing well judging from the number of cultural activities, technical cooperation as well as institutional and people-to-people linkages that have been lined up – one of which is the sister city pact between Sabrosa and Cebu.

A vision of Fatima
One of the most visited places in Portugal is the Santuario de Fatima (Shrine of Fatima) in the municipality of Ourem. Composed of a series of Catholic buildings and structures, the shrine commemorates the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to three shepherd children – 10-year-old Lucia Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto – on May 13, 1917. The children said they saw a lady brighter than the sun surrounded by dazzling rays of light, and these apparitions would again happen for several times on the 13th day of each month – which eventually became known as the “Miracle at Fatima,” with many people testifying that these appearances were accompanied by unexplainable events like the miraculous dancing sun.