Filipinos, who commonly associate Mongolia in lightness with barbecue and Jun Urbano’s bogus Genghis-Khan-garbed character Mr. Shoo Li, are closer by kinship of the heart to Mongolians following the ordination by the Holy See of a Filipino as the first bishop of that country.

His Eminence Wenceslaw Padilla, a self-effacing priest who pioneered missionary work in the former communist country in 1992, was ordained in 29 August 2003 by Pope John Paul II as the chief vicar of Christ in Mongolia. He serves Mongolia’s small but growing Catholic community and carries out welfare programs for the streetchildren of Ulanbator.

Mongolia is an important center for the Catholic Church’s apostolate in Asia. The Pope had said that with the new bishop and cathedral in Ulanbator, Vatican “hopes to cooperate in fruitful service to the common good” with the Mongolian government.

The assumption of His Eminence Padilla lends the Filipino nation a shining face and a cultural symbol in Mongolia and augurs well for the development of Philippine-Mongolian bilateral ties, which mark its 30th year on 11 October 2003.

To celebrate three decades of friendship, Manila and Ulanbator have agreed to exhibit documentary programs on their partner country in their national television stations to help Filipinos and Mongolians know each other better. Average Mongolians know little about the Philippines since their contacts with foreigners have been traditionally and still largely with the Russians and the Chinese, even as the country’s market economic transition has expanded their interaction with other cultures.

Using a good-old approach to strengthen people-to-people ties, the Department of Foreign Affairs arranged for the showing on Mongolian television of a documentary on Philippine cultural and natural  wonders, which would bring delightful impressions in a land of steppes, the Gobi dessert and long cold seasons.

On the other hand, NBN-4 and RPN-9 public affairs programming will show Mongolian productions with rich imagery depicting the nomadic and Tibetan Buddhist cultural traditions and the breathtaking geography of Genghis Khan’s homeland.

President H.E. Natsagiin Bagabandi was the first Mongolian head of State to visit the Philippines. During his visit on 1 – 4 September 2000, the Philippines and Mongolia signed agreements on reciprocal promotion and
protection of investments, air services, scientific and technological cooperation, cultural cooperation, and a Memorandum of Understanding between the Foreign Service Institute and the Ministry Foreign Affairs of Mongolia.

Foreign Secretary Blas Ople, in a letter addressed to Foreign Minister Luvsan Erdenechuluun, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties, underscored the “continuous interaction between Mongolia and the Philippines at the bilateral and multilateral levels” and efforts “to seek further avenues of cooperation.”

The Philippines and Mongolia have consistently supported each other and promoted their common agenda in multilateral fora. A regular exchange of official visits take place between the two sides. The volume bilateral trade has been growing at a steady rate, reaching US$ 73,000 in 2002 from US$ 17,800 in 2001. Philippine firms express keen interest in investing in Mongolia’s mining sector.

Prior to his ordination, His Eminence Padilla has long been the de facto leader of a small Filipino community in Ulanbator. A handful of Filipinos live and work in the Mongolian capital as religious workers, teachers,
accountants/experts of foreign firms and officials of international development agencies.

Mongolia is a landlocked country in Northeast Asia, between Russia and China. It has a population of 2.3 million and a land area of 1,565,600 square kilometers, making it a country with one of the lowest population densities in the world.