Philippine Foreign Minister dead

New York Telegraph Sunday 14th December, 2003

The body of Phillipine Foreign Minister Blas Opel was returned to Manila Sunday, one day after he suffered a heart attack aboard a plane enroute to Bangkok.

His plane made an emergency landing in Taiwan late Saturday after Opel, 76, experienced trouble breathing and passed out, the BBC reported. Doctors were unable to save him.

His flag-draped casket was met by his family and officials in the Phillipine capital late Sunday.

President Gloria Arroyo issued a statement calling Opel a great Filipino.

... He was an architect of foreign policy in the finest tradition of enlightened and pragmatic diplomacy, a champion of peace, human rights, collective security and the rule of law, she said.

A heavy smoker with an undisclosed lung ailment, Ople had suffered a mild stroke in 1994, the BBC said.

Opel was the chief backer of the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement that allowed U.S. troops to return to the Phillipines for training exercises.