US Ambassador to PH during Edsa revolt Stephen Bosworth dies

Former US Ambassador to the Philippines Stephen Bosworth, who played a vital role during the final days of the presidency of dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, has died.

He was 76.

Quoting the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Yonhap News Agency reported that Bosworth died at his Boston home last Sunday, January 3.

SAIS has not revealed the exact cause of his death yet Bosworth has been suffering from prostate cancer.

Bosworth served as US Ambassador to the Philippines from 1984 to 1987 where he saw Marcos being overthrown through the bloodless Edsa People Power revolution.

READ: US set 5 conditions to save Marcos

In the book ”In Our Image: America’s Empire in the Philippines,” by Stanley Karnow, Bosworth was regarded as one of the American officials who were reportedly tapped to “eliminate the Marcoses” following the pull-out of US support to the Marcos administration in the aftermath of the death of opposition leader Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., a sagging economy and a growing discontent against the regime.

It was reported that on February 23, 1986, Bosworth relayed the message of US Secretary George Schultz telling Marcos that his “time was up.”

Three days later, on February 26, 1986, it was the US ambassador who said to have arranged the flight of the Marcoses out of the country.

After serving as US ambassador to the Philippines, Bosworth served as the executive director of Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization from 1994 to 1997; US ambassador to South Korea from 1997 to 2000; and Special Representative for North Korea Policy in 2009.

READ: US, North Korea hold informal talks in Singapore

He graduated from Dartmouth College and took up an economics graduate degree from George Washington University. CDG