Blas Ople - Death

Death

In the months prior to his death, Ople, a longtime chain smoker, had suffered from ill health and often attended international conferences in a wheelchair. On the night of December 13, 2003, Ople had difficulty breathing and lost consciousness while aboard a Japan Asia Airways flight from Bangkok to Tokyo. The flight was diverted to Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taoyuan County, Taiwan, and Ople was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was initially pronounced dead on arrival, but given medical treatment nonetheless. Efforts to revive him were futile, and his death on Sunday, December 14, 2003 was announced by his family.

President Arroyo mourned Ople as "an architect of Philippine foreign policy in the finest tradition of enlightened and pragmatic diplomacy", while U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell hailed him as "one of the pivotal figures of the late Twentieth Century for Philippine history". More critical of Ople, Teddy Casiño, secretary-general of the leftist coalition BAYAN, called him a "political chameleon" who "tried to pass himself off as a nationalist but most pro-American". Nonetheless, Casiño acknowledged that Ople was "a consistent, brilliant and very astute politician".

Ople was eulogized in Time Magazine, which recalled his erudition, his skill at political survival, and his trademark "extraordinary baritone". The eulogy also said that at the height of the People Power Revolution, Ople in Washington, D.C. had reported to Marcos in Manila that the President's support within the Reagan administration was falling. Marcos responded by asking Ople to reach out to his contacts in the Soviet government. Ople rebuffed Marcos, and as Time noted, declined "to help make the Philippines a Soviet colony three years before the Berlin Wall fell".

Ople is buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. In 2004, President Arroyo named Ople's daughter, Susan Ople, as Undersecretary of the Department of Labor and Employment.