1. Blas Fajardo Ople was a Filipino journalist and politician who held several high-ranking positions in the executive and legislative branches of the Philippine government, including as Senate President from 1999 to 2000, and as Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 2002 until his death.
Blas Ople's most enduring role was his nineteen years as Secretary of Labor and Employment during the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos, when Philippine labor laws were overhauled through the enactment of the Labor Code of the Philippines that he had helped author.
Blas Ople was born in Hagonoy, Bulacan on February 3,1927, to Felix Antonio Blas Ople, a craftsman who repaired boats, and his wife Segundina Fajardo.
Blas Ople graduated valedictorian of his grade school class at the Hagonoy Elementary School in 1941.
Blas Ople worked towards a degree in liberal arts at the Educational Center of Asia in Manila.
Blas Ople became a desk editor at the Daily Mirror and the author of its Jeepney Tales column.
Still in his twenties, Blas Ople was one of the youngest newspaper columnists of that era.
Blas Ople co-founded the Kilusang Makabansa, an organization which frequently spoke out on issues of nationalism and social justice in the 1950s.
In 1965, Ople was appointed as Social Security Commissioner by President Ferdinand E Marcos.
Blas Ople resigned briefly in 1971 to run an unsuccessful campaign for election to the Philippine Senate, but was re-appointed to his post in 1972, retaining the position until 1986.
At the time of his appointment, Ka Blas Ople was perceived as a "leftist Nationalist".
Blas Ople instituted labor policies institutionalizing the technical education of workers.
In 1976, Blas Ople initiated a program for the overseas employment of Filipino workers.
Blas Ople obtained recognition from the International Labour Organization during his stint as Labor Minister.
Blas Ople was a close adviser of President Marcos, though he was not later to be associated with the corruption of the Marcos' government and was perceived as "not corrupt".
Blas Ople created international headlines in December 1984 when he admitted to the press that the lupus-stricken Marcos was incapacitated to the point of being unable "to take major initiatives", and that the President's illness had placed the Philippines in "a kind of interregnum".
In 1978, Blas Ople was elected an assemblyman of the Interim Batasang Pambansa representing Central Luzon, and reelected in 1984.
Blas Ople publicly reiterated his support for Marcos in the American media in such fora as on This Week with David Brinkley.
Blas Ople returned to the Philippines and immediately attempted to position himself as the leader of the political opposition against Aquino.
Nonetheless in May 1986, Blas Ople accepted an offer by President Aquino to serve in the Constitutional Commission that drafted a new Philippine Constitution.
Blas Ople was defeated in this attempt, and returned to private life, serving as chairman of the Institute for Public Policy, a policy research institute.
Blas Ople won a re-election for the senate in 1998, under the Laban ng Makabayang Masang Pilipino.
In 1999, upon the resignation of the terminally-ill Marcelo Fernan, Blas Ople became the President of the Senate.
Blas Ople yielded the Senate presidency in 2000 to Franklin Drilon.
Blas Ople was one of the eleven votes during the trial that successfully voted to block the opening of an envelope that was believed to contain proof of the corruption charges against Estrada.
Blas Ople, who had earlier been a vocal supporter of the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement, was perceived to be more amenable to the plan.
Blas Ople was a vocal supporter of the Iraq War, and pushed for the deployment of a small Filipino contingent in Iraq.
The flight was diverted to Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taoyuan County, Taiwan, and Blas Ople was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was initially pronounced dead on arrival, but given medical treatment nonetheless.
Nonetheless, Casino acknowledged that Blas Ople was "a consistent, brilliant and very astute politician".
Blas Ople was eulogized in Time magazine, which recalled his erudition, his skill at political survival, and his trademark "extraordinary baritone".
Marcos responded by asking Blas Ople to reach out to his contacts in the Soviet government.
Blas Ople rebuffed Marcos, and as Time noted, declined "to help make the Philippines a Soviet colony three years before the Berlin Wall fell".