Ambassador Rodolfo Severino Jr., 82

Photo by Howie Severino

20 April 2019 – The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announces with deep sorrow the demise of Ambassador Rodolfo Severino Jr. on 19 April 2019 at the age of 82.

A former journalist, Ambassador Severino joined the Philippine foreign service in 1965. He served as the country's envoy to Malaysia, as Consul General to Houston, as well as held diplomatic posts in Washington, D.C. and Beijing. At the DFA, he served in various positions at the Office of the Undersecretary for Policy and the Office of Asia and Pacific Affairs, ending his foreign service career as Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Policy from 1992 to 1997.

A year after his retirement in 1997, he became ASEAN’s tenth secretary-general from 1998 to 2002, the second Filipino to have earned that distinction. He was also the inaugural head of the ASEAN Studies Centre at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS)-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore from 2008 to 2015.

Ambassador Severino also authored the books “Southeast Asia: In Search of an ASEAN Community” (2006), “ASEAN” (2008), “The ASEAN Regional Forum” (2009), “Where in the World is the Philippines?” (2010), and was also co-editor of “Whither the Philippines in the 21st Century?(2007)”, among many other works.

Born on April 27, 1936, he has a master of arts degree in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and a bachelor of arts degree in Humanities from the Ateneo de Manila University. END