President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and House Speaker Martin Romualdez expressed sadness over the passing of Migrant Workers Secretary Susan “Toots” Ople on Tuesday. She was 61.
“I have lost a friend, the Philippines has lost a friend,” Marcos told the reporters in an interview following his visit to the Toyota Manufacturing Plant in Laguna.
“Secretary Toots was a special person. With deep compassion really for the people she had to care for, namely, the migrant workers, and she was very very — she’s a big loss,” he added.
Ople was the daughter of the late labor minister and senator Blas Ople. She was appointed DMW secretary by Marcos in May 2022. She served as labor undersecretary from 2004 to 2009.
She was “very much following the tradition of Ka Blas Ople of excellence, of compassion,” Marcos said.
The DMW announced Ople’s death in a statement, saying: “Secretary Toots peacefully joined our Creator at around 1 p.m. today, 22 August 2023, surrounded by her family and loved ones.”
Previously, the DMW said that Ople underwent a wellness break to mourn her brothers and spend time with her family.
“Our family has lost two good men within a span of five days. They are now in a much better place, free from pain and reunited with our beloved parents and brother, Raul,” Ople had said in the DMW’s announcement as she went on leave.
Ople’s passing follows the recent demise of her two brothers, Blas Ople Jr. and Felix “Toti” Ople, who succumbed to lung cancer. She had a history of assisting overseas Filipino workers within and outside the government before Marcos Jr. asked her to join his Cabinet.
“Migrant workers, and workers in general, have just lost a great and tireless champion in Secretary Ople. She was the first secretary of the department Congress had created to focus on attending to the welfare of millions of overseas Filipino workers,” Speaker Romualdez said.
The lawmaker recounted that Ople, following the passing of her father, actively engaged in helping overseas contract workers, as OFWs were called at the time, especially the disadvantaged household sector workers.
She relentlessly pushed for their rights, using the advocacy office Blas F. Ople Center, Romualdez said. “Our thoughts and prayers go to Secretary Toots Ople’s family and loved ones at this most difficult time,” he added.
The DMW was created on 30 December 2021 with the signing by then-President Rodrigo Duterte of the Department of Migrant Workers Act (Republic Act 11641).
It absorbed seven offices of the Departments of Labor and Employment and of Foreign Affairs, namely, the DoLE’s Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, and the DFA’s Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs, the Philippine Overseas Labor Office, the International Labor Affairs Bureau, and the National Reintegration Center for OFWs.