Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
In September 1946, then Vice President of the Philippines and concurrent Secretary of
Foreign Affairs Elpidio Quirino spoke thus to the newly-organized diplomatic corps of
the Philippine Republic:
Let us face the world... standing on our own feet, the equal of any other free people
ready to bargain, willing to consider any honourable proposition of mutual aid and
advantage for, after all, nowadays there is no such thing as an absolutely independent
people on earth and pledged to preserve and maintain this free Republic so that its
citizens of the future will say that we built well and built it for our own. That is the true
spirit of liberty without which no true independence can exist, nor can any foreign policy
be wisely formulated before the world.
The night before the war broke out, I was at the Indonesian embassy reception for their
national day. Even if I was third secretary, I was at ease with members of ASEAN. Since
I came from the military, there was this kind of camaraderie that existed between myself
and the four military attachs at the Indonesian embassy. They said, Do you know that
the Russians have been leaving since the day before yesterday? The following
morning, I got a call from the Indonesian military attach. The Egyptians just crossed
the Suez Canal and attacked Sinai and have advanced. I immediately reported to my
ambassador.
That eased the tension and we were able to talk. We went back to New York the
following day with a resolution.
I was the first Philippine ambassador to Brunei. The whole world was looking at Brunei
at that time because it was coming out as the latest state of the world, and 72 kings,
queens, presidents, prime ministers were all there. I enjoyed my stay because one day
you see Prince Charles, the next day you see Thatcher. The following days, you saw
Marcos, Suharto. To my mind, Brunei was a highlight in my career.
On being the undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs
There was also the Melody Das case, which happened in Singapore years later [after
the Flor Contemplacion case]. A Filipina, married to an Indian national, killed her own
two children. She confessed and was convicted (just like Flor Contemplacion.) That was
my first week as undersecretary, so my baptism of fire took place there.
Many times you would prefer to help a matron of society than somebody whos knocking
at your doors, abused, unemployed, hungry. And I think one of the symbolisms of this
statement was after we saved Melody Das from execution. I went to the jail and visited
her and she was still distraught. She killed two of her children. She was getting ready for
the hospital for her treatment and said, Ambassador, you know, now I am reading the
Bible. Ah, good, I said. Did you come to that part of Matthew when he says, When I
was hungry, you gave me food. When you were thirsty, you gave me drink. And it said,
when you were in jail, you visited me. She broke down and we all followed suit. To me,
that was the highest point of my career as undersecretary for migrant workers.
Rosario G. Manalo served as ambassador to Sweden (1994-1997), France (19901994) and Belgium (1985-1987) and undersecretary for International Economic
Relations (1997-2002). It was partly through her work as ASEAN chairperson that a
draft ASEAN Charter was negotiated and submitted. Throughout her long and brilliant
career, she broke barriers of gender, generation, and ways of thinking to advance
progressive ideas in the fields of regionalism, trade policy, gender and development,
culture, and human rights. Currently retired, albeit still serving as a consultant for the
DFA from time to time, Ambassador Manalo now devotes most of her energy to her
work in the academe.
The Foreign Service Competitive Examinations of 1959 produced the first two women to
have ever passed them. I was one of them. The difference between me and the other
lady was that she had already been working in the service for no less than ten years by
the time she took the exams; I came straight from the university and had no work
experience whatsoever.
It didnt matter to me that the foreign office and its service was male-dominated. I had
confidence in myself to prove to the men and the bureaucracy that I could do my job as
efficiently as them, in fact even better.
But I had to learn fast, and in situ, many lessons in human relations.
In the early sixties, I had hardly been two or three years in the service when I was
intrigued by the events taking place in Southeast Asia. In that period, the Cold War was
intensifying; the region was getting divided once more, after the completion of the
decolonization era. Indochina had fallen into the hands of the communists and the rest
of the states of this sub-region remained embracing the ideology of the west. State
politics and security issues came to the fore and turned so significant and crucial in
Southeast Asia that if we were truly to be considered serious diplomats diplomats of
substance, I should say coming from any of the states therein, one could not but focus
on the region and the events affecting us in our geographical location. Thats when and
why I started to be very interested in Southeast Asia: first ASA, then MAPHILINDO and
subsequently ASEAN.
###