Pres. Jose Ramos Horta
Pres. Jose Ramos Horta
(UP Diliman Information Office)—UPD hosted two foreign dignitaries recently, namely Dr. Jose Ramos-Horta, president of the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste and Kristie A. Kenney, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of the Philippines.
Ramos-Horta was at the Malcolm Hall on August 11 to deliver the lecture “South-to-South Peoples’ Solidarity: The East Timor Experience.” The lecture was part of the UP Centennial Lecture Series and was co-sponsored by The Initiatives for International Dialogue (IDD) in celebration of its 20th anniversary.
The co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, Ramos-Horta was described by the IDD as the “tireless, but most visible face of the dogged East Timorese resistance against the illegal occupation of Indonesia.”
According to Ramos-Horta, the 1986 People Power Revolution inspired his country to hope and fight for their freedom and independence. He called the Filipino people “pioneers” for achieving peace through non-violent means. He expressed his admiration for the late Ninoy Aquino, who he met while the former was in the United States, and for Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, whom he called a “great man.” He also thanked the Philippine government for its prompt deployment of peace-keeping forces to East Timor in 1999 and acknowledged the support provided by the priests and nuns in rehabilitating his war-torn country.
Meanwhile, on August 20, the UP Administration feted the US Ambassador and her party to lunch at the Executive House. According to the US Embassy website, Kenney is the first female US Ambassador to the country. It was also her first visit to UP.
The lunch was in appreciation of the US Embassy’s assistance to UP, in particular to the Philippine General Hospital. Over a leisurely lunch, UP President Emerlinda Roman welcomed Kenney, embassy officials and staff and presented an overview of the UP as the National University. Quezon City mayor Feliciano Belmonte later joined the group.
Ambassador Kristie Kenney (center) with (from left) UPD Chancellor
Sergio S. Cao, Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr., UP Pres.
Emerlinda R. Roman and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
Elizabeth Enriquez
As part of the program, Kenney was given a huge citation which read: “For its generous assistance in restoring the four murals by National Artist Carlos Botong Francisco in the PGH Main Lobby, hereby strengthening the existing the long-existing cultural ties between the USA and UP-Philippine General Hospital (PGH) and contributing to the success of the centennial year celebration of the PGH and the University.” The citation was signed by Roman, PGH Director Carmelo Alfiler and UP Manila Chancellor Ramon Arcadio.
In a brief speech, Kenney thanked Roman and expressed her admiration for UP. “This is such an impressive university,” she said, because of the unique combination of “offering the very highest level of academics and at the same time making a university education accessible to people no matter what their means, or what part of the country they come from.”
She said she was pleased at the way UP has turned out since it was founded a hundred years ago and thanked UP “for letting us continue to play a part in this extraordinary institution” through the work on the murals.