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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Wednesday, July 25, 2001

Mass to honor ex-Philippine consul general

By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer

Manila's representative in Hawai'i during the post-Marcos years will be honored at a memorial Mass here Saturday.

Solita Marquez Aguirre, who was Philippine Consul General to Hawai'i from 1992 to 1996, died Thursday in her hometown of Kawit, Cavite, Philippines, the consulate announced yesterday.

The Philippine Consulate and the Filipino-American Community of Hawai'i will sponsor the Mass at 10 a.m. Saturday at Sts. Peter and Paul Church, 800 Kaheka St.

Aguirre, 60, had achieved the rank of ambassador in the Philippine diplomatic corps in 1996, when she was named her country's ambassador to Hungary. She also maintained relations with Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

In Hawai'i, Aguirre was remembered for sheltering newly arrived Filipino veterans who fought for the United States in World War II and were seeking American citizenship; for organizing aid to victims of Typhoon Angela in 1995, and for a brouhaha over the arrival of Marcos supporters in Hawai'i for a wake in memory of the former president.

Aguirre denied she had slighted Marcos' son, Ferdinand Jr., and other Philippine congressmen, and said she failed to meet them personally at the airport in 1993 because she was unaware of their arrival.

Serving as her government's representative in Hawai'i was especially challenging, because of the travel and commercial needs of Filipinos, who make up nearly 20 percent of the state's population, and because of deep political divisions in Hawai'i's Filipino community.

She flatly labeled Marcos a dictator, and said his regime of torture and terrorism contrasted sharply with the "authentic democratic government of the Philippines" under Corazon Aquino, who appointed her, and Fidel Ramos, whom she also served.

Applauding a verdict awarding millions to victims of the Marcos regime, Aguirre noted testimony that Marcos claimed full responsibility for actions of his military, and said Ramos defended his own human rights record under Marcos by saying he made martial law under Marcos "more compassionate" by trying to check abuses.

Before her assignment in Hawai'i, Aguirre worked in Manila as director general of the government's office of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

A 1962 graduate of Far Eastern University, she also served the government at the United Nations in New York.

While in Hawai'i, Aguirre oversaw restoration of the consulate and adding of the Filipina Rooms, a display of antiques, art objects and a book collection open to the public.

The 33-nation Consular Corps of Hawaii named her "Dean of the Consular Corps" in 1993.