PEACE-MAKER
We join our cousin Gretchen de Venecia del Rosario and her family in mourning the passing of former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario.
As our country’s top diplomat during the President Benigno Aquino III administration, Albert first captured the Filipino people’s imagination when he traveled to Tripoli to oversee the evacuation of hundreds of Filipino workers in Libya, which was then rocked by massive bloody unrest.
The year was 2011, when political turbulence spread like wildfire in more than 10 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, taking the world by surprise. Citizens in these countries launched protests and demonstrations against their governments, leading to violent overthrow of leaders in Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, and Egypt. The series of events was later called as the Arab Spring.
Aside from Libya, he also visited several countries during tumultuous times in the Middle East and North Africa, ensuring the safety and repatriation of tens of thousands of our OFWs.
It was also Albert who led the filing of the Philippines’ complaint against China before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in 2013, over the issue of territorial rights in the West Philippine Sea. In 2016, the arbitral tribunal ruled in favor of our country.
He was also known to have given his monthly salary to the employees of the Department of Foreign Affairs when he was the secretary.
Albert served as Philippine ambassador to Washington from 2001 to 2006, under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Before joining the government, he was a successful businessman and served in the board of various companies. He was president of the Management Association of the Philippines and led various civic organizations. He also headed charitable institutions like the Philippine Cancer Society and the Free Rural Eye Clinic (FREC).
Albert’s brother-in-law, Dr. Guillermo de Venecia, founded the Free Rural Eye Clinic in 1978, which has since operated on thousands of poor sightless patients in my home province of Pangasinan and in the neighboring Zambales, Tarlac, and La Union. Albert and our late brother Oscar de Venecia both served in the board of trustees of FREC.
The father of siblings Guillermo and Gretchen del Rosario was a medical doctor and served as Philippine consul general in Hamburg during the administration of President Ramon Magsaysay.
Farewell, Albert, and thank you for your outstanding service to our country and the Filipino people.