ELMER G. CATO
Consul General
Consulate General of the Republic of the Philippines
Milan

Hon. Elmer Gozun Cato is a career diplomat with the rank of Chief of Mission Class II. He is currently the Consul General of the Republic of the Philippines in Milan, Italy.

Consul General Cato joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1998 after passing the Foreign Service Officers Examinations. He initially served as Principal Assistant and later Special Assistant for National Security, Migrant Workers and Media Affairs of then Secretary of Foreign Affairs Domingo L. Siazon, Jr. and later Teofisto T. Guingona, Jr., who was then concurrently the Vice President of the Philippines.

In 1999, Consul General Cato served as Spokesperson, Operations Officer and later Acting Executive Director of the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFACOM) under the Office of the President. In 2001, he was assigned to head the Regional Consular Office of the Department of Foreign Affairs in San Fernando and later at Clark Field in Pampanga.

In 2003, Consul General Cato was assigned to the Permanent Mission of the Philippines to the United Nations in New York where he served as Alternate Representative to the UN Security Council during the Philippine membership in 2004 to 2005. He represented the Philippines in the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) and was elected its Vice Chairman during the 63rd Session of the General Assembly in 2008. From 2005 to 2010, Consul General Cato concurrently served as Peacekeeping Officer and Press Officer of the Permanent Mission.

Consul General Cato returned to the Home Office in Manila in 2010 and served as Special Assistant for Special Projects of then Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael E. Seguis and concurrently as Special Assistant and Director for Intelligence of the Office of Intelligence and Security under Secretary Albert F. Del Rosario. He was also Executive Director of the National Council on United Nations Peace Operations of the Philippines.

In 2012, Consul General Cato was assigned to the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C. where he handled the public diplomacy and legislative affairs portfolios.

In 2015, Consul General Cato volunteered to serve as Charge d'Affaires, en pied and Head of Mission of the Philippine Embassy in Baghdad, one of a few diplomatic missions that remained open in Iraq during the height of the Islamic State rampage. He survived the ISIS suicide car bombing of the Babylon Warwick Hotel that claimed the lives of several people.

At the end of his six-year overseas tour of duty in 2018, Consul General Cato returned to Manila to serve as Acting Assistant Secretary and later Assistant Secretary of the Office of Public Diplomacy and later the Office of Strategic Communications and Research during the terms of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter S. Cayetano and Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr.

A year later, Consul General Cato volunteered to serve in the Philippine Embassy in Tripoli as Charge d'Affaires, en pied and Head of Mission during the Third Libyan Civil War and the coronavirus pandemic that followed.

In March 2021, Consul General Cato was transferred to New York where he served as Consul General during the height of the anti-Asian hate crisis. He was reassigned to Milan in late December 2022.

Consul General Cato is a two-time recipient of the Gawad Mabini (Order of Mabini), one of the highest decorations the Republic can confer on Filipino diplomats. He received his first Gawad Mabini with the Rank of Dakilang Kasugo (Commander) from President Benigno S. Aquino III in 2012 for initiating the transfer and rent-free hosting of DFA passport offices to shopping malls nationwide. He received his second Gawad Mabini with the rank of Dakilang Kamanong (Grand Cross) from President Rodrigo R. Duterte in 2022 for his actions in Libya during the Third Civil War and the coronavirus pandemic.

A Lieutenant Colonel (Reserve) in the Philippine Army, Consul General Cato was also awarded the Bronze Cross by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for heroism and bravery in Libya.

A political science graduate of De La Salle University in Manila, Consul General Cato also attended the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the Asian Institute of Management, and the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication.

He was also a journalist from 1983 to 1998. He started as a 16-year-old cub reporter and went on to serve as correspondent for various local, national and international news organizations in the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia. He was also Publisher and Editor of the Angeles Sun and K Magazine in Pampanga.

Consul General Cato was born in Angeles City on 22 December 1966. He is married to Dr. Melanie Gliceria Romero Cato with whom he has two children, Eyron Matthew, 25, and Maryana Elyse, 24.