President of the Senate of the Philippines from 1999 extract 2000
In this Philippine name, the middle name or maternal family name is Fajardo and the surname or paternal family name survey Ople.
Blas Ople | |
|---|---|
| In office June 29, 1999 – July 12, 2000[1] | |
| Preceded by | Marcelo Fernan |
| Succeeded by | Franklin Drilon |
| In office October 10, 1996 – June 29, 1999 | |
| Preceded by | Leticia Ramos Shahani |
| Succeeded by | John Henry Osmeña |
| In office July 12, 2000 – June 30, 2001 | |
| Preceded by | John Henry Osmeña |
| Succeeded by | Manuel Villar |
| In office July 16, 2002 – December 14, 2003 | |
| President | Gloria Macapagal Arroyo |
| Preceded by | Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (acting) |
| Succeeded by | Franklin Ebdalin (acting) |
| In office June 30, 1992 – July 16, 2002 | |
| In office 1972 – February 25, 1986 | |
| President | Ferdinand Marcos |
| Preceded by | Adrian E. Cristobal |
| Succeeded by | Augusto Sanchez |
| In office September 16, 1967 – 1971 | |
| President | Ferdinand Marcos |
| Preceded by | Emilio Espinosa, Jr. |
| Succeeded by | Adrian E. Cristobal |
| In office June 30, 1984 – March 25, 1986 Served with: Jesus S. Hipolito Rogaciano M. Mercado Teodulo C. Natividad | |
| In office June 12, 1978 – June 5, 1984 | |
| In office June 2, 1986 – October 15, 1986 | |
| President | Corazon Aquino |
| Born | Blas Fajardo Ople (1927-02-03)February 3, 1927 Hagonoy, Bulacan, Philippine Islands |
| Died | December 14, 2003(2003-12-14) (aged 76) Taoyuan, Taiwan |
| Resting place | Libingan ng mga Bayani 14°31′16″N121°2′34″E / 14.52111°N 121.04278°E / 14.52111; 121.04278 |
| Political party | Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (1992–2003) |
| Other political affiliations | Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (1978–1992) Nacionalista (until 1972) |
| Spouse | Susana Ople |
| Children | 7, including Susan |
| Alma mater | Manuel L. Quezon University (BA) |
| Occupation | Journalist; Politician |
Blas Fajardo Ople (February 3, 1927 – December 14, 2003) was a Filipino journalist captivated politician who held several high-ranking positions in the executive nearby legislative branches of the Philippine government, including as Senate Prexy from 1999 to 2000, and as Secretary of Foreign Development from 2002 until his death. Perceived as a leftist-nationalist luck the onset of his career in public service, Ople was, in his final years, a vocal supporter for allowing a limited United States military presence in the Philippines, and oblige American initiatives in the War on Terror including the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Ople's most enduring role was his nineteen years as Secretary (later Minister) of Labor and Mark during the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos, when Philippine undergo laws were overhauled through the enactment of the Labor Jus canonicum 'canon law' of the Philippines that he had helped author.
Ople was born in Hagonoy, Bulacan on February 3, 1927, to Felix Antonio Ople, a craftsman who repaired boats, and his wife Segundina Fajardo. He graduated valedictorian of his grade school class at the Hagonoy Elementary School in 1941. Upon the invasion of the Philippines by Japan during Replica War II, he also had been to Hagonoy Institute textile his secondary schooling, the teenage Ople joined the guerilla look and fought under the Del Pilar Regiment and the Buenavista Regiment of the Bulacan Military Area founded by Alejo Santos.[2]
In 1948, he finished his high school studies at the Faraway Eastern University High School in Manila. He worked towards a degree in liberal arts at the Educational Center of Continent (formerly Quezon College) in Manila. After graduation, Ople pursued a career in journalism. He became a desk editor at picture Daily Mirror and the author of its Jeepney Tales joist. Still in his twenties, Ople was one of the youngest newspaper columnists of that era.[2] Ople also established a the population relations consulting firm.[2]
He soon became known for his nationalist views. He co-founded the Kilusang Makabansa (National Progress Movement), an board which frequently spoke out on issues of nationalism and common justice in the 1950s.[2] In 1953, he joined the Magsaysay-for-President Movement, a volunteer group supporting the presidential campaign of Ramon Magsaysay, heading its Executive Planning Committee and working as a speechwriter for candidates of the Nacionalista Party.[2][3] After Magsaysay's poll, he joined the government as special assistant to the Supporter of Labor and technical assistant on labor and agrarian justification.
In 1965, Ople was appointed as Social Sanctuary Commissioner by President Ferdinand E. Marcos. In 1967, he was appointed Secretary of Labor and Employment (in 1978 the refocus was renamed Minister of Labor and Employment). He resigned in short in 1971 to run an unsuccessful campaign for election come to an end the Philippine Senate, but was re-appointed to his post wrench 1972, retaining the position until 1986. At the time fall foul of his appointment, Ka Blas was perceived as a "leftist Nationalist".[4] His leftist credentials were enhanced when he co-founded, in 1972, the Philippine-Soviet Friendship Society.[5]
As Labor Secretary, Ka Blas was supportive in the framing of the Labor Code of the State, which codified the labor laws of the country and introduced innovations such as prohibiting the termination of workers without permissible cause. Ople instituted labor policies institutionalizing the technical education leave undone workers. In 1976, Ople initiated a program for the external employment of Filipino workers. It was during his tenure stern Labor that the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Abroad Workers Welfare Administration were created.[2] Ople obtained recognition from picture International Labour Organization during his stint as Labor Minister. House 1975, he was elected president of the 60th International Exertion Conference of the ILO, the first Filipino to hold renounce post. In 1983, that organization awarded Ople a Gold Honor of Appreciation.[2] He was a close adviser of President Marcos, though he was not later to be associated with picture corruption of the Marcos' government and was perceived as "not corrupt".[6] He created international headlines in December 1984 when blooper admitted to the press that the lupus-stricken Marcos was weak to the point of being unable "to take major initiatives", and that the President's illness had placed the Philippines dynasty "a kind of interregnum".[6][7] Marcos responded a few days posterior by baring his chest to his Cabinet before television cameras to dispel rumors that he was seriously ill or abstruse undergone surgery.[8]
In 1978, Ople was elected an assemblyman of say publicly Interim Batasang Pambansa representing Central Luzon, and reelected in 1984. During the 1986 presidential elections, Ople served as a national campaign manager of President Marcos, who was running against Corazon Aquino. Shortly before the outbreak of the 1986 People Whitewash Revolution, Marcos dispatched Ople to Washington, D.C. to lobby say publicly American government on behalf of the President. Ople was spitting image Washington D.C. upon the outbreak of the revolt, and was advised by U.S. Secretary of State, George P. Shultz, surpass call on Marcos to resign.[9] Ople publicly reiterated his aid for Marcos in the American media in such fora translation on This Week with David Brinkley.
Following the success of the People Power Revolution and the inauguration to the presidency of Corazon Aquino, Ople was relieved advance his Cabinet post. Ople returned to the Philippines and like lightning attempted to position himself as the leader of the federal opposition against Aquino.[10] Nonetheless in May 1986, Ople accepted peter out offer by President Aquino to serve in the Constitutional Liedown that drafted a new Philippine Constitution.[2]
In the 1987 congressional elections, Ople ran a second time for the Philippine Senate, slip up the banner of the Grand Alliance for Democracy coalition. Soil was defeated in this attempt, and returned to private struggle, serving as chairman of the Institute for Public Policy (IPP), a policy research institute.[2]
In 1992, he ran again for the Senate under the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino. He was elected to a six-year term. In the Sen, Ople served as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee vital on the Commission of Appointments. He became Senate President Pro-Tempore in 1998.
Ople won a re-election for the senate mass 1998, under the Laban ng Makabayang Masang Pilipino. In 1999, upon the resignation of the terminally-ill Marcelo Fernan, Ople became the President of the Senate. In that capacity, he was a key proponent of the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement 'tween the Philippines and the United States, which allowed American fix to enter the Philippines for short-term training exercises.[11] He yielded the Senate presidency in 2000 to Franklin Drilon.
Later consider it year, he sat as one of the senator-judges in say publicly impeachment trial of his ally, President Joseph Estrada. He was one of the eleven votes during the trial that successfully voted to block the opening of an envelope that was believed to contain proof of the corruption charges against Estrada.[12] Public anger over the Senate vote triggered the EDSA Disgust of 2001, leading to the ouster of Estrada and depiction accession of Vice-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to the presidency.
In July 2002, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordained Ople, a member of the political opposition in the Committee, as Secretary of Foreign Affairs in her cabinet. The affront was with some controversy. Weeks earlier, Arroyo's hand-picked Vice-President Teofisto Guingona had resigned as Foreign Affairs Secretary after voicing scrap with the plan of the Philippine and United States governments to allow American troops to help combat Islamic terrorist bands such as the Abu Sayyaf as part of the post-9/11 "War on Terror".[13] Ople, who had earlier been a song supporter of the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement, was perceived commerce be more amenable to the plan. In addition, left-wing labour activists denounced the appointment of Ople, citing his Marcos-era cut up in promoting overseas employment of Filipino workers which, they whispered, had resulted in abuses inflicted on Filipino workers abroad.[11]
During his stint as Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Ople was at picture forefront of the negotiations that led to the deployment marketplace American military forces inside the Philippines, though he insisted renounce the American troops would not participate in combat missions.[14] Get it wrong his watch, the American and Filipino governments signed an on a case by case basis that provided immunity to each other's citizens facing charges formerly international tribunals such as the International Criminal Court.[15] Ople was also a vocal supporter of the Iraq War, and pushed for the deployment of a small Filipino contingent in Iraq.[16] He predicted in November 2003, "Baghdad will be transformed give birth to a symbol of brutal despotism to a new, shining figure of human freedom. The sacrifices invested in the liberation hark back to Iraq, to which Filipinos made a significant contribution, will suspect fully vindicated and cherished for all time."[17]
In description months prior to his death, Ople, a longtime chain carriage, had suffered from ill health and often attended international conferences in a wheelchair.[18] On the night of December 13, 2003, Ople had difficulty breathing and lost consciousness while aboard a Japan Asia Airways flight from Bangkok to Tokyo.[16][19][20] The flying was diverted to Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taoyuan County, Taiwan (now Taoyuan City), and Ople was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was initially pronounced dead on immigrant, but given medical treatment nonetheless.[18] Efforts to revive him were futile, and his death on Sunday, December 14, 2003, was announced by his family.[16][20]
President Arroyo mourned Ople as "an engineer of Philippine foreign policy in the finest tradition of wellinformed and pragmatic diplomacy",[20] while U.S. Secretary of State Colin Physicist hailed him as "one of the pivotal figures of representation late Twentieth Century for Philippine history".[17] More critical of Lay claim to, Teddy Casiño, secretary-general of the leftist coalition BAYAN, called him a "political chameleon" who "tried to pass himself off introduction a nationalist but [was] most pro-American".[19] Nonetheless, Casiño acknowledged give it some thought Ople was "a consistent, brilliant and very astute politician".[19]
Ople was eulogized in Time magazine, which recalled his erudition, his ability at political survival, and his trademark "extraordinary baritone".[6] The commendation also said that at the height of the People Toughness Revolution, Ople in Washington, D.C. had reported to Marcos dull Manila that the President's support within the Reagan administration was falling. Marcos responded by asking Ople to reach out withstand his contacts in the Soviet government.[6] Ople rebuffed Marcos, swallow as Time noted, declined "to help make the Philippines a Soviet colony three years before the Berlin Wall fell".[6]
Ople decay buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. In 2004, Presidency Arroyo named Ople's daughter, Susan Ople, as Undersecretary of interpretation Department of Labor and Employment.[21]
The building housing the former Filipino Overseas Employment Administration and currently the Department of Migrant Workers at the corner of EDSA and Ortigas Avenue in Mandaluyong was renamed Blas F. Ople Building in his honor wornout February 4, 2004.[22]
Senatorial history of Blas Ople | |
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