“Sawadee Krub”: News From Thailand
For the last few years, many alumni brothers and sisters had been attempting to get together and form a Council in the Kingdom, with mixed results.

The biggest problem faced was that the Filipino community in the Kingdom, unlike those in other countries (e.g. The United States, KSA, Singapore, Hongkong), was small, and its members scattered all across the country.

“I’d migrated to Bangkok early 2007.  Having been an active member of the Triskelion Council in Singapore, my first order of business was to try and hook up with fellow Triskelion brothers and/or sisters living in Thailand.  Unfortunately, I quickly found out that there wasn’t any formal Council established then“, related Brod Carlos Castanos (DLSU Chapter alumni circa 1988, and co-founder/current Director of Membership of the Thailand Council ).  “Thankfully, with the help of some of my chapter mates in Singapore (who were obviously much more internet savvy than me) I was able to do a search via Facebook and Friendster, along with soliciting referrals from various Triskelion WW Yahoo! Group forums, and identified some Triskelions who were living in Thailand.  I was able to get a few of us together in February 2008 at the Sofitel Grand Plaza Hotel in Bangkok, later set up a Yahoo!Groups website, and the rest is history“.

A very important milestone in the history of the Thailand Council was recently achieved last March 18,  with the unanimous election of the Council’s first President, Brod Bryan Luna Dela Cruz (aka “Foxbase”, PUP Chapter alumni circa 1994) in a meeting held at the Emerald Hotel in Bangkok.  “I am truly honored by the Council’s vote of confidence, and am very excited to be part of this group and be its first ever President.  I was also humbled by the amount of encouragement, congratulations and kind words provided by Triskelions from various chapters worldwide when news of our recent meeting was published at the TGFS Worldwide forum.  At last, we now have a formal networking forum for Triskelion brothers and sisters either living in, and/or visiting Thailand“, says Brod Bryan. “Having said that, we do have a big job ahead of us, which is to further get ourselves organized, write up our Thailand chapter Constitution and Charter, and get other Thai-based Triskelions into the Council.  Lots of hard work!“.

Brod Carlos agrees.  “To date, we have identified and touched base with over 20 Triskelions, have formally set up our forums in Yahoo!Groups and Facebook, and are really gearing up for further organization.  Our next steps are really to develop the Charter/ Constitution, verify/ validate membership of our Council mates, and really promulgate and promote the spirit of Fortis, Voluntas and Fraternitas in this part of the world”

“I encourage every Triskelion who finds themselves overseas, to do the same thing we did and try and meet up with other Triskelions where they are living in“, adds Brod Bryan.  ‘It is a truly amazing experience to be able to know that there are brothers and sisters out there sharing the same experience and values.  As the saying goes, once a Triskelion, always a Triskelion”