PEACE-MAKER
Jose de Venecia Jr.
Former Speaker of the House
Our wife Gina and we mourn the passing of our dear friend, the respected columnist, veteran journalist, and bestselling book author Carmen “Chit” Navarro Pedrosa.
We first met Chit Pedrosa in the early 1960s when we were both young journalists covering foreign affairs. She was a reporter for the Manila Chronicle while we were the Manila bureau chief of the Pan Asia Newspaper Alliance, the first Asian news agency, and a weekly columnist at the Philippines Herald.
We still remember accidentally meeting her and her husband in the early 1980s in London, where they lived into self-exile when Martial Law was declared. In our case, we resided and held office for three years in the British capital in the early 1980s, as we oversaw our business ventures as prime contractor, then in the Middle East, in the cities of Riyadh and Jubail in Saudi Arabia, and in the cities of Tripoli and Benghazi in Libya, North Africa.
Many years later, Chit and her husband, the late Ambassador Alberto Pedrosa, became close friends to us and our wife Gina. They were part of our “core group” which served as our confidantes and advisers when we were Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Bert and Chit Pedrosa were a great help to us when we organized, established, and launched the now 350-political party-member International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) in Manila in September 2000; and, later, the Centrist Asia Pacific Democrats International (CAPDI), which brings together political parties and civil society organizations in the Asia Pacific region under one roof and in a common house.
Chit Pedrosa is a genuine, taciturn and humble patriot - - in mind, heart and spirit - - endangering at times her life and career to advance the causes of our country and to embrace causes larger than herself.
As our unwavering and indefatigable ally in a number of great and memorable causes, we will always remember her many contributions and dreams for our country that she so dearly loved.
She was a steadfast advocate of Charter change toward a shift from presidential to parliamentary form of government and from unitary to federal system. She was co-convenor of the Coalition for Constitutional Change.
She was the proponent and served as first chairperson of the Media Forum, an affiliate group under the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP). We remember her extemporaneously presenting her proposal for the creation of the Media Forum before leaders of political parties from all over Asia during the ICAPP conference in Nanning in 2014. Her proposal was unanimously adopted, and the following year, 2015, the ICAPP Media Forum was launched in Seoul.
As a journalist, Chit Pedrosa’s strategic and undaunted use of her mighty pen never faltered or dimmed, even risking her own life and of her family to defend free press and free speech; and to help keep Philippine democracy alive and vibrant.
She wrote a weekly column for the Philippine Star for more than 30 years and authored several unauthorized biographical books on former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos.
As a dear friend, we will always cherish her well-meaning counsel, sincere affection, and simple ways; her dedication to her late husband, Ambassador Bert Pedrosa, and to her children and grandchildren.
Chit Pedrosa mourned with us and consoled us and wife Gina when we lost our 16-year-old youngest daughter KC to a fire that destroyed our home in 2004. She campaigned for us and reassured us when we lost the presidential elections in 1998. She supported us in our many political battles, where we won some and lost some.
One may not always agree with her advocacies and convictions, of which she was very passionate about. But she was always motivated by her love of country and the Filipino people. Her integrity was unassailable.
Thank you, Chit, for your many contributions to nation building. Thank you for standing by us during the most challenging moments in our family and political life. Thank you for your great friendship, which has truly stood the test of time and which we will forever treasure.