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Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Arroyo, First Gentleman pay respects to Ople
PRESIDENT Arroyo conveyed her condolences to the family of the late Foreign Affairs Sec. Blas Ople during her visit Tuesday at the Christ the King Chapel in Green Meadows in Quezon City where the Cabinet official's wake is being held.
Arroyo immediately proceeded to the chapel after arriving at 8:45 a.m. from a two-day state visit in Bahrain.
She was welcomed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Centennial Terminal by First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, son Diosdado Ignacio, Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr., Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo, Press Sec. Milton Alingod, Customs Commissioner Antonio Bernardo, AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Narciso Abaya Jr., and PNP Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr.
Arroyo, who was accompanied by her husband at the wake, spent a few minutes with Ople's widow, Susana Vazquez-Ople, before proceeding to Malacaņang.
Ople died in Taiwan after suffering a heart attack board a plane headed for Bahrain last Sunday, supposedly to join the President in her state visit to the Middle Eastern country.
The President paid tribute to Ople, whom she described as a "champion of the poor, the vanguard of reconciliation and our bridge from the past to the future, a moving spirit of nation-building through many seasons."
"Secretary Ople deserves the highest accolade the state can give in accord with the wishes of his family to have a peaceful and solemn mourning," she added. SCT
(December 17, 2003 issue)
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