Honorary Consulate General of Greece in Cebu

The National Day of Greece, celebrated in Cebu for the first time in history, is featured in the Society section of the Daily Tribune, in Honey Jarque Loop’s column.

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Link to the article: https://tribune.net.ph/2026/04/14/historic-first-greeces-national-day-officially-celebrated-incebu

The National Day of Greece featured in SunStar Lifestyle. 🇬🇷

Greece’s performance is exceptional, outranking countries such as the United Kingdom, the USA, Australia, and Canada—proving that holding a Greek passport is both a privilege and a significant advantage.

National Day of Greece Welcome Address
By Consul General (a.h.) Michael Acebedo Lopez of Greece
(Edited to reflect ad libs delivered during the speech)

25 March 2026 | The Social Hall of the Cebu Provincial Capitol

Kalispera!

Your Excellency Ambassador Ioannis Pediotis of the Hellenic Republic, and Mrs. Aliki Pappá;
The EU Ambassador
The Honorable Pamela Baricuatro, Governor of Cebu;
The Honorable Nestor Archival, Mayor of Cebu City;
Cebu City Representatives Rachel Del Mar and Edu Rama; Excellencies, the Consuls General of Japan and the People’s Republic of China, and former Philippine Ambassador to Hungary; Assistant Secretary Jerome Pampolina of the DMW; distinguished members of the Diplomatic Corps;
Honourable members of the Consular Corps, my esteemed colleagues;
Dr. Angel Espiritu Jr, Regional Director of the Department of Foreign Affairs;
Dame Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung;
The Greeks residing in Cebu and the Visayas and Mindanao, guests, dear friends, ladies and gentlemen, good evening.

Welcome to the celebration of the National Day of Greece and the 76th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Greece and the Philippines.

For those visiting us from elsewhere, welcome to Cebu. Welcome to this oldest of Philippine cities, the oldest of Philippine provinces, home to the oldest church as an institution in the Philippines and home to the oldest Christian icon in the Far East, the revered Señor Santo Niño de Cebu.

Before anything else, on behalf of the Embassy of Greece in Manila and the Honorary Consulate General of Greece in Cebu, allow me to express our sincere gratitude to our presenters: the Province of Cebu and Governor Pam Baricuatro for graciously making available the Social Hall of the Capitol and for lighting the Capitol façade in blue in honor of Greece (Thank you to your daughter, Dr Nikki Catalan, for always being dependable and excellent); to HP Acebedo Optical Corp (for one must love thine own); Topline (led by my BFF Erik Lim); and My Greek Taverna (we have two buffet tables tonight, Filipino and Greek: the Greek table is led by Panny Kyriakopoulos of My Greek Taverna).

Our special thanks as well to our co-presenters: Casino Filipino Cebu led by Ms Marisol Abad Pasion; Bauhinia Brewery, to my dear friends Jokin and Marken Aboitiz; and Crimson Resort and Spa Mactan; and Dynacast Shipbuilding and Repair, represented by Marylou Ngo Ang…

Now that I’ve dispensed with some of the essentials…

It is my honor and privilege to welcome all of you this evening as Honorary Consul General of Greece in Cebu. I remain deeply grateful for the trust and confidence bestowed upon me by Your Excellency Ambassador Pediotis and Mrs. Pappá, by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic, and by the President of Greece for my appointment to this position in 2024.

Last year, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Greece and the Philippines, we made history as we soft opened the Honorary Consulate General of Greece here in Cebu. In the coming months, we look forward to its formal inauguration, which will be marked with an Orthodox blessing.

It is also particularly fitting that the Honorary Consulate General of Greece should be established here in Cebu, this historic port city whose story has always been tied to the sea and to encounters between cultures. Indeed, this is the first consular representation of the Hellenic Republic in the Philippines established outside the national capital, and it is therefore appropriate that it should be here, in a place whose history itself reflects centuries of maritime exchange and global connection. Greece, the cradle of Western civilization, the birthplace of democracy and philosophy, meets Cebu, the cradle of Christianity in the Far East.

Speaking of that Orthodox/Ecumenical blessing, one of the things that brings Filipinos and Greeks together is our shared Christian faith. Though from two ancient branches of Christendom, Roman Catholicism for many Filipinos and Greek Orthodoxy for many Greeks, it is nevertheless a common Christian faith that we share.

We also share something else. Our peoples have long been shaped by the sea. Both Greeks and Filipinos are seafaring peoples, and maritime life has long been part of our histories and cultures.

A little piece of historical trivia may be of interest. As Cebuano historian and genealogist Todd Sales will soon write about in his column on April 1, it is perhaps unbeknownst to most that among the crew of Ferdinand Magellan when he arrived in (and never left) the Philippines, here in Cebu in 1521, were nine Greeks. One might therefore say that the earliest recorded presence of Greeks in the Philippines began here in Cebu.

It was on that same voyage that Magellan presented Rajah Humabon and Queen Humamay with the now beloved and venerated image of the Child Jesus, our Senor Santo Niño de Cebu. In that sense, Greeks were part of the voyage that brought this cherished icon to our shores.

Some years later, when Miguel López de Legazpi, my namesake, arrived in Cebu in 1565, another Greek appears in the historical record. A sailor known as Andreas the Greek, who served as a ship’s caulker in Legazpi’s expedition, chose to settle here, diri sa Sugbo, and married a Cebuana noblewoman, the widowed niece of Rajah Tupas, the paramount ruler of Cebu at the time. Upon her baptism she was given the name Isabel. Their union is remembered as the earliest recorded marriage between a European and an indigenous Filipina, another small but remarkable connection between Greeks and Cebuanos at the very beginning of our shared history. (Who knows some of us here might be descended from this first Greek-Filipino union, and perhaps Todd, with the help of budding genealogist Noah Iñigo Tan, can trace our connection to this first Greco-Filipino intermarriage.)

In our own time, the story continues in another way. Today, more than half a millennium hence forth, it is Filipino overseas workers and seafarers who carry their faith across the seas, bringing it westward and often rekindling it where it has grown faint. As Pope Francis once said, Filipinos are “smugglers of faith.”

Many of these seafarers come from Cebu and have studied at the University of Cebu, and so I would also like to acknowledge the leadership of Atty. Augusto W. Go, President of the University of Cebu. And fittingly, many Filipino seafarers enthusiastically share their culture and faith with the world aboard Greek-owned ships, continuing the maritime connection between our two peoples that stretches back centuries.

And so tonight we celebrate a shared faith, a shared maritime tradition, and, in the years to come, for all of us gathered here this evening, puhon, puhon, a shared memory as we mark the seventy sixth anniversary of diplomatic relations between Greece and the Philippines, and of course, the National Day of Greece.

For me personally, it is also something of a long journey. It is a long way from being a young child devouring books on Greek mythology to standing here today helping celebrate, at a time when we all pray for peace and goodwill among all peoples, among all nations, the enduring friendship between our two nations.

Allow me to thank all of you most sincerely for your presence tonight, which makes this occasion even more meaningful.

Thank you very much, and good evening.

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Greece, Cebu eye stronger ties in tourism, tech, and maritime Greece is exploring deeper economic engagement with Cebu, with potential collaboration in tourism, software development and maritime recruitment as the Mediterranean nation seeks to broaden partnerships with the Philippines beyond Metro Manila.

The Greek government is exploring deeper economic and maritime cooperation with Cebu, as it seeks to expand partnerships in tourism, technology, and the seafaring industry. Full story at the link in the comments.