Former Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. has passed away due to pneumonia caused by the recurrence of his cancer. He was 73 years old.
In a Facebook post, Yasay’s wife Cecile announced her husband died at 7:26 a.m. on Friday.
“Jun Yasay, you are loved. We will miss you lots,” Cecile said.
Funeral arrangements were not immediately disclosed.
Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. also confirmed the news on his Twitter post.
“Jun Yasay has donned the garment of immortality . . . More important it makes him finally impervious to pain,” said Locsin, who succeeded him.
The country’s top diplomat admitted it was Yasay who recommended him for his job in the United Nations.
“He hurt no one and helped everyone he could. He did what many fighting tyranny had to: shield themselves with US law,” Locsin said, in eulogizing the former secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Yasay served as the country’s foreign secretary from June 30, 2016, soon as President Rodrigo Duterte took his oath of office, until March 8, 2017, when lawmakers rejected his appointment over a citizenship controversy.
The Commission on Appointments, composed of legislators from both houses of Congress, removed Yasay from office after he denied under oath that he was once a US citizen.
Yasay was a campaign supporter and once a dormitory roommate of Duterte when they were law students, the latter a student at the Benedictine-run San Beda University.
For five years, Yasay served as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from 1995 to 2000. Sixteen years later in 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte named him as DFA secretary.
Yasay was replaced by now House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano as DFA secretary in 2017.
