Nation mourns death of foreign secretary: President Arroyo

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, December 14, 2003

Nation mourns death of foreign secretary: President Arroyo

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Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said the nation mourns the death of Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople who died at a hospital of China's Taiwan province after falling critically ill while on a flight from Tokyo to Bahrain.

"The nation mourns the death of a great Filipino. We were awed by the vision and indomitable wit of Secretary Blas Ople," Arroyo,who left Sunday for Bahrain for a visit, said in a statement issued in Manila.

"He was an architect of foreign policy in the finest tradition of enlightened and pragmatic diplomacy, a champion of peace, humanrights, collective security and the rule of law," said Arroyo, whoappointed the 76-year-old Ople as her foreign secretary in July this year.

Ople experienced difficulty in breathing and subsequently lost consciousness while on board a flight from Tokyo to Bahrain via Bangkok late Saturday to rendezvous with President, prompting the pilot to make an emergency landing in Taipei to seek medical treatment for him, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Franklin Ebdalintold reporters here.

"Efforts by medical personnel to revive him, on the flight and in hospital, proved unsuccessful," Ebdalin said. "We are deeply saddened and regret to announce that Secretary Blas Ople passed away today of natural causes."

Carlos Sorreta, Ople's special assistant who was with him during the flight, said the secretary appeared well in Tokyo, where Ople accompanied President Arroyo for a two-day summit between Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that ended Friday.

Officials and Ople's family members flew to Taipei Saturday morning, and they are expected to bring home Ople's remains in theday.

A notorious smoker, Ople suffered a mild stroke in 1994. He wassuffering from a respiratory ailment.

Ople, a World War II veteran who became a first lieutenant at 16, served as labor minister from 1967 to 1971 and then from 1972 to early 1986 during the rule of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, who was ousted by a popular revolt in 1986.

He was first elected senator for a six-year term in 1992 and was re-elected in May 1998 for a second term. During his years in the Senate, he chaired Senate Committees on foreign relations, on civil service and reorganization, and on education, culture and the arts. He was elected the Senate president in the middle of 1999.

Before joining Arroyo's cabinet, Ople was an opposition senator.At various times, Ople had worked as a newspaperman, public relations practitioner, and university lecturer.

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