The Philippine government has paid tribute to former UN Secretary-General and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kofi Annan.
Annan, who served as UN chief from 1997 to 2006, died yesterday (Saturday, August 18) in Bern, Switzerland. He was 80 years old.
“We are saddened by the demise of former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said today.
“Mr Annan made history as the first and only black African to head the UN, and his humanitarian work has been recognised and earned the former world’s top diplomat a Nobel Peace Prize,” he added.
Annan was awarded the Nobel peace prize for his humanitarian effort with the UN in 2001.
“The world, has, indeed, lost not only a diplomat and peacekeeper but a humanitarian who worked tirelessly for a better and more informed humanity,” Roque said.
Quoting Annan’s words, he added: “Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.”
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said the Philippines would remember Annan as a “champion of humanity”.
“His dignity, vision, and determination have made our world a better place to live in. For that, the Philippines will forever be grateful,” he said.
He then listed some of Annan’s achievements, including the UN Global Compact, Millennium Summit, Global Fund and other UN reforms “that helped shape today’s international environment”.
“The Philippines will remember Kofi Annan for his unwavering commitment to multilateralism that reinvigorated the United Nations and brought peace to places around the world that have been torn apart by conflict,” he concluded.
These tributes come among a worldwide outpouring of condolences after Annan died following what has been described as a “short illness”.
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