COVID-19 kills Philippine woman ambassador
MANILA: The Philippine woman envoy to Lebanon succumbed to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) after testing positive for the dreaded disease which has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization ( WHO), the country’s top diplomat confirmed on Thursday.
She was Ambassador Bernardita Catalla who died shortly after midnight on Thursday in a hospital in Beirut, Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin reported in his Twitter account.
“Ambassador Catalla passed away at 12:30am in the Beirut hospial where she was confined,” Locsin said, adding the ambassador’s remains would be received with an honor guard upon arrival in the country.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), meanwhile, said Catalla was a career diplomat for 27 years and was the first among the the countruy’s foreign service officers to die from the dreaded ailment.
“Service to the country has been the hallmark of Ambassador Catalla’s distinguished foreign career service,” the DFA said in a statement in paying tribute to the late envoy.
On the other hand, Locsin disclosed he would nominate Catalla for the coveted Gawad Mabini and Sikatuna awards conferred on Filipinos who had rendered distinguished foreign service for the country.’
According to DFA, prior to her assignment as the Philippine ambassador to Lebanon, Catalla served as the consul general to Hong Kong “looking over the welfare of the hundreds of throusand of overseas Filipino workers (OFWS).”
As part of her foreign assignments, Catalla also served in various capacities at the Philippine embassies in Indonesia and Malaysia which are partners of the Philippines in the 10-member Associatiion of Southeast Asian Nations (Aseamn) that also includes Brunei, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar (Burma).
Earlier, Secretary Eduardo Ano of the Department of Interior and Local Government himself confirmed he testive positive for COVID-9, an infection he apparently got from his close contact with a confirmed patient.
Ano, who retired as the chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said he would continue to work from home where he has to undergo the mandatory 14-day quarantine imposed by the health department.
Ano also serves as the deputy chief of the National Action Plan approved by the InterAgency Task Force (IATF)ON Emerging Infectious Diseases to handle mainly the government campaign to help stop the rapid spread of COVID-19 in the Philippines.