PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III has accepted the resignation of Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, effective March 7, due to health reasons, Malacañan Palace announced Monday.
The Palace only announced the resignation in a brief statement, but GMA News Online reported that Del Rosario himself had already told senior officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs that he had already told Aquino of his plan to resign.
The officials quoted Del Rosario as saying he will be succeded by career diplomat, Undersecretary Laura del Rosario, who was the official in charge of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit last November.
The 76-year-old Del Rosario told the officials he was resigning because of a worsening spinal condition that was not solved by a back surgery in the United States last year.
Moreover, Del Rosario’s health difficulties was aggravated by a heart condition led to the attachment of pacemaker last November.
However, the officials said Del Rosario said he will still accompany Aquino to the Association of South East Asian Nations-United States summit in California on Feb. 15 to 16.
The US-educated Del Rosario has been in the foreign service since 2001 when he was appointed ambassador to Washington by then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, but he resigned in 2006 after political disagreements with the Arroyo administration.
Aquino later appointed him foreign secretary in 2011, shortly before China took possession of Scarborough Shoal that has strained the country’s relations with China over the past five years.
Del Rosario was also at the helm of the foreign office when it haled Beijing to an international arbitral tribunal over its provocative ownership claim over much of the South China Sea.
Although he tried to ease relations with Beijing, it reached the point that Del Rosario would not even attend the Chinese Embassy’s traditional Spring Festival, or Lunar New Year, celebration.
Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua admitted to journalists that he was pleasantly surprised by Del Rosario’s appearance at the last Spring Festival reception at a Makati hotel last Tuesday.
“I hope it’s the start of a good thing,” Zhao said. “The same goes for the bilateral relations between China and the Philippines. Despite the challenges and difficulties, our overall relations remained stable and developing in 2015.”
Del Rosario’s term as foreign secretary was also dominated by the concerns of Filipino workers in Africa and the Middle East where he had to supervise several evacuation of nationals because of local violence, one of which involved Filipino peacekeeping mission for the United Nations.
But while much of his term was dedicated to fixing deteriorating relations with China, Del Rosario also led the foreign office in forging closer cooperation with the United States, Japan, Australia South Korea and even Vietnam.
