Chito Sta. Romana, Philippine ambassador to China
MANILA, Philippines — The nation misplaced one in every of its distinguished representatives to the worldwide neighborhood, the diplomat, journalist, educator and activist Jose Santiago “Chito” Sta. Romana, who died on Monday on the age of 74.
The Division of Overseas Affairs (DFA), in its assertion on Sta. Romana’s passing, didn’t point out the reason for his demise, whereas the Chinese language Ministry of Overseas Affairs stated he died “as a result of an sickness.”
Each the DFA and Malacañang emphasised his “distinguished tenure” because the nation’s ambassador to China—“essentially the most difficult international put up,” the division even stated, by means of which “Philippine-China relations… flowered all of the extra in maturity and have been deeply strengthened” on his watch.
Communications Secretary Martin Andanar, the performing presidential spokesperson, stated in a Palace briefing: “We pay tribute to Ambassador Sta. Romana for his contributions in strengthening Philippine-China relations.”
Chinese language Ambassador to Manila Huang Xilian confirmed his familiarity with the background of the Philippines’ consultant to his nation, saying that “over the previous 51 years, ranging from a international scholar studying Chinese language in Beijing, to ABC’s China correspondent for over 20 years and to Philippine ambassador to China, Ambassador Chito has spent the very best a part of his life understanding and serving to the world and the Philippines to know China.”
Huang additionally cited Sta. Romana’s first go to to China “when he headed the Philippine Youth Delegation in 1971.”
“I tremendously worth our time working collectively and can at all times be thankful for his friendship and simple contribution to the event of China-Philippines relations,” Huang stated.
New life in Beijing
Sta. Romana was an alumnus of De La Salle College, the place he completed levels in economics and in commerce. He additionally accomplished a grasp’s diploma on the Fletcher College of Regulation and Diplomacy in Massachusetts.
He was 23 when he and different scholar leaders went to China upon the invitation of the Beijing-based Chinese language Individuals’s Friendship Affiliation, a company aimed toward fostering worldwide cooperation.
“It was imagined to be [just] a three-week go to to China” Sta. Romana stated in a 2011 interview with the Inquirer, recounting how his life there started.
However whereas he was in China, President Ferdinand Marcos suspended the writ of habeas corpus following the Plaza Miranda bombing of Aug. 21, 1971, and this led to the arrest of a number of activists.
Sta. Romana recalled that he and 4 different activists in his delegation additionally feared arrest and determined to stay in China, ending up staying indefinitely as Marcos declared martial regulation a 12 months later.
Amongst his fellow delegates have been Ericson Baculinao, then president of the scholar council of the College of the Philippines (UP), the late Dr. Mario Miclat, who later turned dean of the UP Asian Middle, and Jaime FlorCruz of the Philippine Faculty of Commerce—now the Polytechnic College of the Philippines—who headed the League of Editors for a Democratic Society. (FlorCruz would finally change into a journalist like Sta. Romana and would head CNN’s Beijing bureau.)
In his new life in Beijing, Sta. Romana studied Mandarin and have become an editor and translator for a publishing home there, earlier than seizing a chance to change into a correspondent for the Washington Submit.
Journalist, diplomat
After Marcos’ fall in 1986, Sta. Romana returned residence, however would once more discover his calling abroad.
As a reporter and later producer for ABC Information, he lined main tales in Beijing, from the Tiananmen Sq. protests in 1989 to the Olympics in 2008. Quickly after that he turned ABC’s Beijing bureau chief.
His group gained an Emmy award within the information and documentary class in 2000, and earned two different Emmy nominations in 2001 and 2006. He was additionally awarded by the Abroad Press Membership of America for his protection of the earthquake in China’s Sichuan province in Might 2008.
Upon retiring in 2010 after 21 years with ABC Information, Sta. Romana and his spouse, Nancy, returned to the Philippines. He labored as a lecturer on Chinese language politics at UP’s Asian Middle and headed the Philippine Affiliation of Chinese language Research.
In 2016 he started a brand new profession in diplomacy along with his appointment as ambassador to China, amid tensions between the Asian energy and the Philippines over the West Philippine Sea.
Beijing’s media welcomed that appointment, with the China Day by day quoting two senior researchers as saying that the brand new envoy, “a China hand” and “a bridge” between the 2 nations, “will assist Manila higher perceive China’s insurance policies” and “scale back misunderstanding.”
Maritime dispute
Sta. Romana stated the nation’s maritime dispute with China was a matter that ought to be handled “diplomacy” and “deterrence.”
He stated the nation’s method was to debate the dispute however handle it in order that it might not flip right into a disaster and an impediment to cooperation.
According to President Rodrigo Duterte’s purpose to encourage friendlier ties with China, Sta. Romana stated the federal government employed a “dual-track technique” and handled the West Philippine Sea as a “separate monitor.”
“In doing that, you open one other monitor for areas the place there aren’t any disputes, and that’s the technique we’re following—selling economics, commerce, commerce, instructional change, cultural change, selling sports activities,” he informed reporters in 2017.
Maritime regulation professional Jay Batongbacal, director of the UP Institute of Maritime Affairs and Regulation of the Sea, stated: “He (Sta. Romana) got here at a time once we most wanted an envoy who really understood China. His loss brings nice disappointment that our individuals can not be privileged by his service.”
Austin Ong, a former scholar of Sta. Romana, stated his mentor additionally turned standard amongst Filipino staff in China, who known as him the “individuals’s ambassador.”
—WITH REPORTS FROM NESTOR CORRALES AND INQUIRER RESEARCH
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