Philippines ex-foreign minister dies at 83

Albert del Rosario (pic), the Philippines’ former foreign minister has died at the age of 83, Manila said.

Del Rosario, who served under Philippine president Benigno Aquino from 2011 to 2016, died on Tuesday while en route to the United States, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said in a statement that did not specify the cause of death.

Born in Manila in 1939, he went on to graduate with a degree in economics from New York University and later became a fierce critic of China.

Del Rosario was “a staunch advocate of protecting and advancing national security and promoting the rights and welfare of Filipinos”, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

“He was a consummate diplomat and an inspiring leader who led the DFA with integrity and unwavering commitment to public service,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo tweeted.

Relations with Beijing soured during his tenure, which was marked by a fierce standoff in 2012 in Scarborough Shoal, a chain of reefs and rocks 240km west of the main Philippine island of Luzon.

The former leader was behind two prominent legal cases against Beijing, including a 2013 case at an international tribunal that eventually struck down China’s claims to most of the resource-rich South China Sea waterway. — AFP