00:00 The best heroes are the people you love the most.
00:03 The best life is the one devoted to principles that you believe in and are prepared to fight
00:11 for.
00:12 Susan Ople devoted her whole life to fighting for laborers and overseas Filipino workers.
00:18 It was her father, the late Senate President and Foreign Affairs Secretary, Blas Ople,
00:24 who inspired her to pursue that love.
00:27 In honor of him, she built the Blas Ople Policy Center, a non-government organization assisting
00:33 returning OFWs.
00:36 She also followed her father's footsteps as a writer, advocate, and public servant.
00:43 And when she took the helm of the fledgling Migrant Workers Department, her first priority
00:47 was to launch a command center for distressed OFWs.
00:50 "When I was the head of my own NGO, we would experience that.
00:57 They would come from the province, their children are being forced to work or they are being
01:06 forced to work.
01:07 In some cases, they don't know if they are alive or dead because they can't talk.
01:13 I see the need that the burden of our parents or our brothers, our workers abroad, should
01:23 not be added."
01:24 Ople was Labor Undersecretary in 2004, during the Arroyo administration.
01:30 She unsuccessfully ran a center in 2010 and 2016.
01:35 She went on a two-week wellness leave in late July this year, after her two older brothers
01:40 died.
01:42 Then on Tuesday afternoon, Ople herself bid farewell, surrounded by family and loved ones.
01:49 The DMW has yet to disclose the cause of her death, but in 2020, Ople revealed she was
01:55 diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent surgery.
01:59 President Bongbong Marco says the Philippines lost a friend.
02:03 "She very much followed in the tradition of Cablas Ople, of excellence, of compassion.
02:12 It is a great loss for all of us."
02:16 While the DMW asks for prayers for the eternal repose of the leader, it lost too soon.
02:24 George Cahiles, CNN Philippines.
