The Philippine Embassy in Qatar announced on their official Facebook page that Her Excellency Lillibeth V. Pono, the first Philippine woman ambassador to the State of Qatar, arrived in Doha on 29 January 2023 and was received by H.E. Ambassador Ibrahim Yousif Abdullah Fakhro, Director of the Protocol Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar, and the Philippine Embassy’s officers and staff.

Before she arrived in Qatar, H.E. Ambassador Pono served as the Chargé d’Affaires ad interim in the Philippine Embassy in Berlin, Germany, from February 2018 to April 2019 and from July 2021 until January 2023.

H.E. Ambassador Pono was previously assigned to the Philippine Embassies in Berne, Switzerland, from 2010 to 2014; Rome, Italy, from 2009 to 2010; Vatican, Italy, from 2008 to 2009; and Tokyo, Japan, from 2000 to 2007.

A foreign service officer since 1997, H.E. Ambassador Pono also held various executive positions in the Department of Foreign Affairs. She previously served as Executive Director at the Office of Asset Management and Support Services, the Office of Consular Affairs, and the Office of Fiscal Management Services. In her earlier years in the Department, she also held the position of Director at the Office of Asian and Pacific Affairs, South Asia Division, and the Financial Planning Division of the Office of Fiscal Management Services.

Also a certified public accountant, H.E. Ambassador Pono speaks Filipino, Cebuano, English, Italian, and Spanish.

Source and cover image credit: Philippine Embassy in Qatar

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Tracy Quirino

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