DFA spokesman Assistant Secretary Raul Hernandez INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is honored to have been visited by the late president Nelson Mandela for a meeting with “fellow icon of democracy” the late President Corazon Aquino, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Friday.
“The Philippines will forever be honored to have hosted president Nelson Mandela’s visit to our country in 1996,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said in a press conference Friday.
“[Filipinos will] recall with pride and appreciation his historic meeting with a fellow icon of democracy, the late Philippine president Corazon Aquino in Cape Town, in the same year,” he said.
Mandela, who died at the age of 95 after a prolonged battle with a lung illness, was described as a “courageous and compassionate champion of democracy and racial equality” and a “beacon of inspiration and hope.”
Hernandez said that the Philippines joined South Africa and the world in mourning Mandela’s death.
“Filipinos who stood in the vanguard of the world’s struggles for freedom with our very own people’s power stand in solidarity at this sad moment with our brothers and sisters in South Africa,” he said.
“The late president Mandela’s extraordinary integrity, his tireless commitment, and his grand vision that embraced equality for all even under the most trying of circumstance shall never be forgotten,” Hernandez said.
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