Slain DFA official laid to rest

Senior diplomat Alicia Ramos was laid to rest at noon yesterday in Rosario, Cavite as police reported no progress in tracking down the men who killed her.

She was buried beside her parents’ grave at the Seventh Fleet Cemetery.

Two masses were offered for Ramos’ soul. The first mass was held at the Loyola Memorial Chapel in Guadalupe, Makati City at 8 a.m., attended by Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo.

Romulo lauded Ramos, who last served as assistant secretary for the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Asia and Pacific Affairs Office, as a consummate diplomat who recognized national interest as a transcendent value to be pursued.

He also commended the excellent work Ramos did in preparation for the state visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao which, coincidentally, ended yesterday.

Members of the diplomatic corps, DFA officials and staff, and Ramos’ relatives and close friends attended the first Mass, a necrological service organized by the DFA.

DFA Undersecretary Franklin Ebdalin said the Philippine foreign service lost more than just a colleague with Ramos’ murder.

"While she may have remained unmarried in her natural life, she was a sister, mother, friend and confidante to many of us in the department. The department was her family and we have come together... as a family to bid her farewell," he said.

Ebdalin said Ramos was his batchmate in taking the foreign service officer exams, which she topped. He added that Ramos’ excellence, as shown by her exam results, remained a constant throughout her work with the DFA.

Ramos’ body was then transported to the cemetery, where a second Mass — more solemn than the first — was held to give other relatives a chance to say their last goodbyes before she was laid to rest at around noon.

Ramos, 64, was found dead inside her bedroom after three armed men ransacked her house on Boyle street in Barangay Palanan, Makati City at dawn Sunday. Her sister, Leticia, was also in the house but managed to escape after freeing herself from being tied up and blindfolded. The suspects used masking tape to muffle her cries for help.

The senior diplomat — who is survived by Leticia and another sister, Ester Ramos-Bailey — served as ambassador to New Zealand, Romania and Singapore.