Death of DMW chief Susan Ople a great loss for all of us – Bongbong Marcos
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Tuesday lamented the death of Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) Secretary Susan “Toots” Ople, calling it “a great loss for all of us.”
Ople, who had been battling breast cancer, died Monday afternoon.
“It is a great loss for all of us. It is a great loss for all of us over my friend. It is a great loss to the Philippines for the service we know she could have still have rendered,” said Marcos in an ambush interview in Laguna.
Marcos had visited the Toyota Motor Philippines Manufacturing Plant when news broke out of Ople’s death.
The President likened Ople to her father, Blas Ople, who served as labor secretary/minister during the administration of then-president Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr.
“She was very much following the tradition of Ka Blas Ople, of excellence, of compassion,” he said.
The President called Ople a friend and expressed his sorrow upon the news.
“It’s very, very sad news. I have lost a friend, the Philippines has lost a friend. Secretary Toots was a special person. With the deep compassion really for the people she had to care for, namely the migrant workers, and she was very very—she’s a big loss,” he said.
In a separate social media post, Marcos said that he grieved with Ople’s family and friends. He praised Ople’s passion for laborers.
“The Philippines now also mourns a great champion for the labor movement in the Philippines. She dedicated her life, in every waking moment, to the welfare of laborers in general and migrant workers in particular. She was tireless in her pursuit to always support and find protection for our workers,” he said.
Marcos described the late secretary as the perfect mix between compassion and hard-nosed pragmatism.
“There cannot be a better example of the perfect mix of compassion and hard-nosed pragmatism than in Toots. She got many things done in her years of public service, and all for others, never for herself. I grieve together with her family and all those who called Toots a friend. Our prayers are with you,” said Marcos.
