Consul General Antonio A. Morales attended the launch as one of the special guests of the Diversity List 2018 held at the Peninsula Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui. The event was organized by The Zubin Foundation, a Hong Kong-based social policy non-profit think tank committed to equality and justice.

The event’s guest of honor, Hong Kong Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, delivered the opening remarks highlighting the need for Hong Kong to enhance the well-being of all ethnic minority citizens, promote their upward social mobility and foster their integration into the city’s social fabric.

The Diversity List, Mr Cheung said, is aimed at increasing ethnic minority’s representation including Filipinos in the government advisory body by putting forward highly-credentialed and committed Hongkongers of non-Chinese ethnicity.

Chief Secretary Cheung also announced the appointment of Dr. Theresa Cunanan, to the newly-established Human Resources Planning Commission, a Hong Kong government advisory body.  Of Filipino ethnicity, Dr. Cunanan is a senior lecturer at the Hong Kong Baptist University’s College of International Education. 

Consul General Morales also met with two Filipino professionals, Mr. Danilo Andres Reyes and Ms. Luisa Tan Castro. Mr. Reyes is a consultant at Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), an NGO with General Consultative Status at the United Nations, Hong Kong. 

Ms. Castro is a teacher of Liberal Studies and ethics and Religious Studies at Islamic Kasim Tuet Memorial College.  She is a volunteer in various Muslim Associations and Committees.

There are around 220,000 Filipinos in Hong Kong and about 203,000 of them are household service workers.