PGMA confers Order of Sikatuna on US Ambassador Kenney
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo conferred today the Order of Sikatuna, Rank of Datu with Gold Distinction, on
Kristie Ann Kenney, outgoing US Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Philippines.
The American lady diplomat merited the honor for her outstanding contribution to advance bilateral relations
between the Philippines and the United States.
“I wish you all the best,” the President said after the ceremony, held this morning at Malacanang’s Music Room.
“It is such a great honor,” Kenny responded. “I appreciate your leadership, openness and support to me.”
The order is conferred on diplomats, officials, and nationals of foreign states who have rendered services in
fostering, developing and strengthening relations between their country and the Philippines.
In Kenny’s case, the citation says she has done so much to educate the young people of the country, protect the
environment, advance the interest of Filipino veterans, improve defense and security cooperation between the
two countries, and foster peace and development in Mindanao.
The citation also notes her leadership in facilitating immediate assistance to the Philippines in times of calamity.
Kenney, the first woman US Ambassador to the Philippines, said the award was also for her two thousand
colleagues at the US Embassy in Manila, both American and Filipino.
“I’m their face but they do the great work,” she said.
“It has been an extraordinary honor to represent my country in the Philippines, one of our oldest allies. I have felt
very much at home in the Philippines, perhaps because our two countries have so much shared history. Our
fathers and grandfathers shed blood together in World War II to protect our freedom. Millions of Filipinos live and
work in the United States, and many Americans call the Philippines home. We are so much more than friends,”
Kenney said in her farewell statement.
She asked Filipinos to extend the same hospitality to her successor Harry K. Thomas, who President Barack
Obama has nominated as the first Afro-American US envoy to Manila.
According to Kenney, Thomas is an experienced diplomat, who happens to be her close personal friend.
”He will be a wonderful United States Ambassador to the Philippines, and I know Filipinos will give him a warm
welcome," Kenney said.
Kenney will leave Monday for Washington, D.C., to look after her ailing 86-year old mother.
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PGMA names Icban acting press secretary
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Crispulo Icban Jr., editor in chief of the Manila Bulletin, will replace the late Press Secretary Cerge M. Remonde
in an acting capacity.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo made the announcement at the lunch she hosted for the Malacañang Press
Corps at the Palace.
“Like Cerge, Jun is first and foremost a journalist,” the President said of the new Cabinet secretary.
Icban is the ninth press secretary under President Arroyo. His predecessors were the late Noel Cabrera (whom
he inherited from President Estrada), Rigoberto Tiglao, Silvestre Afable, Ignacio Bunye (who served twice),
Hernani Braganza, Milton Alingod, Jesus Dureza, and Remonde.
Born in Tondo, Manila, on Aug. 3, 1935, Icban graduated from the Tarlac Central Elementary School in 1946 and
from the Pampanga High School in 1950. He was class valedictorian in both instances.
He graduated from the University of the Philippines (UP)-Diliman with a bachelor of arts in English, magna cum
laude, in 1954. In his senior year at UP, he served as editor-in-chief of the Philippine Collegian, the university
students paper.
Upon graduation, he joined the Manila Times as general assistant in the editorial department, later as reporter
covering the Department of Foreign Affairs, and then as editorial writer. He was subsequently appointed news
editor, a position he held until 1972, when the paper was closed down upon declaration of martial law.
In 1957-58, he took a leave of absence from the Manila Times, to work for his master’s degree in journalism,
under Fulbright and Smith Mundt Grant, at Syracuse University in New York.
In 1966-67, he was one of 12 American and six international newsmen in the annual Nieman Fellowship
program at Harvard University in Massachusetts.
Icban served as professorial lecturer in journalism and English at the Philippine Women’s University (PWU)
from 1956 to 1957 and at the UP-Diliman from 1958 to 1973.
He authored, in collaboration with Dean Gloria Feliciano of the UP Institute of Mass Communication, Philippine
Mass Media in Perspective, a book now used as school reference.
In 1974, Icban joined the Manila Bulletin, as consultant to the publisher and later as news editor. He became
editor-in-chief on Nov. 25, 2003.
Icban has received numerous awards in over half a century of service as journalist. He was named Outstanding
Kapampangan by the Pampanga Provincial Government, 1988; and Distinguished Tarlaquenos by the Tarlac
Provincial Government, 2003.
He was conferred a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Management, honoris causa, by the Pampanga Agricultural
College on April 12, 2006.
He is married to Zenaida Pamintuan Icban of Bacolor, Pampanga. They have six children and 16 grandchildren.
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PGMA confers Order of Lakandula on Press Secretary Cerge Remonde
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo conferred today the Order of Lakandula with Rank of Grand Cross (Bayani)
on the late Press Secretary Cerge Remonde as he lay in state at the Heroes Hall in Malacanang Palace.
His widow, Marit Stinus-Remonde, received the posthumous award, given “for his outstanding service to the
Republic of the Philippines and in recognition of his life as an exemplary media man and public servant.”
The late Cabinet Secretary’s body, brought from Heritage Park in Taguig City, will be flown to Cebu tomorrow
morning.
In her speech, the President praised Remonde for his selfless dedication as a public servant and for his
achievement as a journalist, noting he reached his peak in her administration.
“Cerge gave fully of himself for the sake of our country, both in government for the last nine years and in media
since he was 18 years old,” the President said.
According to the President, Remonde deserved the love and adoration of friends and colleagues that are
pouring on him.
“A popular radio host, Cerge interviewed me frequently on the phone in Cebuano,” the President said. “ That
exposure helped me because it made many people in the Visayas and Mindanao realize that I spoke Cebuano,
and that resulted in my landslide win in 1995, 1998, and 2004 in Visayas and Mindanao, where people speak
the language.
“When we would discuss in caucus proposed measures that involved media, Cerge was always consulted as a
stakeholder,” the President said.
“I learned to take Cerge’s opinion into account, in my work as Senator and, later, as President,” she added.
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