Blow Ople

Blas Fajardo Ople (born February 3, 1927 , † December 14, 2003 in Taoyuan , Taiwan ) was a Filipino politician and minister.

biography

Ople was appointed Minister of Labor by President Ferdinand Marcos in 1967 and held this position until Marcos was overthrown by a popular uprising in 1986. Due to his loyalty to Marcos to the end, Ople was also dismissed from President Corazon Aquino as a member of the constitutional commission in 1987.

In 1992 he continued his political career by being elected senator as a candidate for an opposition party . As such, he was Senate President pro tempore between 1996 and 1998 and, after the death of Marcelo B. Fernan on July 11, 1999, President of the Senate for a short time until 2000.

Blow Ople's grave

In July 2002 he resigned his Senate mandate after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo appointed him foreign minister . Ople was the successor to Teofisto Guingona , with whom President Arroyo had a dispute over his stance on the presence of the United States Army in the Philippines . As foreign minister, Ople had significant influence on the shaping of foreign policy, for example in the form of the permission to set up US anti-terror training units. There was also a dispute with neighboring Malaysia over the treatment of illegal Filipino immigrants there. Finally, he was also a leader in supporting the US-led invasion in Iraq .

He died on December 14, 2003 in a hospital in Taoyuan, Taiwan, after suddenly falling seriously ill on a flight from Tokyo to Bangkok . On December 20, 2003, the previous State Secretary in the Foreign Ministry, Delia Domingo-Albert , was appointed as the new Foreign Minister.

Web links

• Senate homepage
• Short biography on rulers.org