Arturo Tolentino & Family

Story

My family\’s great journey to our new country started well before I first set foot on Australian soil at Kingsford Smith (Sydney) International Airport on 7 February 1977.

It began some eight months before that date in the middle of 1976 when we received from the Australian Consular Office in Manila, Philippines the approval to immigrate to Australia. You can imagine my excitement at this good news! Finally, a chance for my family to have a better life.

Despite my wife and I being both University graduates and having very rewarding jobs, we decided to come to Australia for a number of reasons. Firstly, the economic situation in the Philippines has turned from bad to worse. Corruption existed not only in government offices but has started to become the norm in the commercial world. People in influential positions are being offered (or is it demanded?) ‘gifts’ of all sorts in exchange for ‘favours’. I did not want to be part of that! I did not want my children to grow in that environment. We want something better for them. Something decent and honest.

Peace and order was also getting worse. Martial Law brought some ‘peace’ but it also gave rise to basic human rights abuses.

Australia has a lot more to offer.

About the Journey:

In the late 70\’s, jobs were harder to get in Australia, compared to the 60\’s. My best friend and the Godmother of my first son, Alvin, the former Lydia Guevarra, who encouraged us to come to Australia , advised me to consider coming to Australia ahead of my family to see if I am able to find a job here as an Accountant before bringing in my family. We seriously considered this suggestion and saw reason to do just that.

That was my first big mistake!

Being in a ‘foreign’ country on your own and thousands of miles away from your family is a very lonely situation to be. You would not wish it on your worst enemy. I missed my wife and my two young boys who were left behind in Manila.

I was crying every night from day one.

My friends, Fred and the late Sol Daroy (who were very kind to accommodate me during my first days in Sydney), Lydia and Timothy, Bell and Chris, Ernie and Gay and Baby and Buloy, tried to comfort me but the pain of separation was too much. If I have a chance to do it all over again; I would take my wife and children with me wherever I go. I don\’t want to be alone again!

On the morning of 26 June 1977, I stood at Gate A or B at Sydney Airport anxiously waiting for my wife and two young sons to come through the doors.

As soon as I laid eyes on them, my sorrows have gone. We hugged and kissed. My boys had a big surprise on their faces. Edwin hardly recognised his father who left him when he was so young. Alvin appeared so serious.

Soon this will be replaced with smiles on their faces as we started to get to know each other again.

I spent the next few weeks taking my family to show them the beauty of Australia. We frequently went to the world famous Bondi Beach to let the boys loose on the sand. This was the time before the syringes and drugs in Bondi Beach. The beach was clean and the sand was safe to walk on. Now it is different.

Everywhere we went, whether it\’s the Opera House, Hyde Park or Circular Quay, people, especially older people, always praised our young boys, how beautiful and well behaved they were.

Finally, we are together again doing the things we enjoy as family.

On the morning of 7 February 1977, I arrived in Australia on board a Philippine Airlines flight from Manila to Sydney. It was the last days of summer and yet I was shivering. I was wearing long-sleeve shirts everyday to be more comfortable whilst the ‘locals’ were wearing singlets and thongs. Back in my country of birth, it was hot, very tropical, some people call it. Hence, I had a lot of adjustment to make in relation to the weather, amongst other things. As a newcomer, I was anxious to assimilate and behave like the ‘locals’.

As the saying goes: ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do.’

I was not worried at all because if there is something Filipinos are able to do, it is being able to adapt to the new surrounding and the new people.

No worries, Mate!

Many people often asked me that if I was given another chance by the Almighty to come back and be reborn, would I change any part of my life. The answer is a BIG NO, except, of course, for the part where I was separated from my family so far away and for a considerable length of time. Otherwise, I would be very happy to go through life again the same way.

I had a good life, why change it? Many people would kill for the life I\’ve had.

On behalf of my children and grandchildren, thank you Australia for being such a kind and generous country!

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