Carlos P. Romulo

Carlos Peña Romulo (14 January 1899, Camiling, Tarlac, Philippines – 15 December 1985, Manila, Philippines) was a Filipino diplomat, politician, soldier, journalist and author. He was a reporter at 16, a newspaper editor by the age of 20, and a publisher at 32. He is the co-founder of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines.

He graduated from the University of the Philippines, (BA) 1918; Columbia University, New York City, (MA), 1921, Received from Notre Dame University, Indiana, Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa), 1935; Rollins College, Florida, Doctor of Literature (Honoris Causa), 1946; University of Athens, Greece, Doctor of Philosophy (Honoris Causa), 1948, University of the Philippines, Honorary Doctor of 'Laws, April 1949, Harvard University, Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa, 1950.

He served eight Philippine presidents from President Manuel Quezon to President Ferdinand Marcos as a cabinet member or as the country’s representative to the United States and to the United Nations.

He served as the President of the Fourth Session of United Nations General Assembly from 1949-1950, and chairman of the United Nations Security Council. He had served with General Douglas MacArthur in the Pacific, was Ambassador to the United States, and became the first Asian to win the Pulitzer Prize in Correspondence in 1942. The Pulitzer Prize website says Carlos P. Romulo of Philippine Herald was awarded "For his observations and forecasts of Far Eastern developments during a tour of the trouble centers from Hong Kong to Batavia."

He served as Resident Commissioner of the Philippines to the United States Congress from 1944 to 1946. He was the signatory for the Philippines to the United Nations Charter when it was founded in 1946. He was the Philippines' Secretary (Minister from 1973 to 1984) of Foreign Affairs under President Elpidio Quirino from 1950 to 1952, under President Diosdado Macapagal from 1963 to 1964 and under President Ferdinand Marcos from 1968 to 1984."In his career in the United Nations, he was a strong advocate of human rights, freedom and decolonization. During the selection of the UN's official seal, he looked over the seal-to-be and asked, "Where is the Philippines?" US Senator Warren Austin, head of the selection committee, explained, "It's too small to include. If we put the Philippines, it would be no more than a dot." "I want that dot!" insisted Romulo. Today, a tiny dot between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea can be found on the UN seal. In 1948 in Paris, France, at the third UN General Assembly, he strongly disagreed with a proposal made by the Soviet delegation headed by Andrei Vishinsky, who challenged his credentials by insulting him with this quote: "You are just a little man from a little country." In return, Romulo replied, "It is the duty of the little Davids of this world to fling the pebbles of truth in the eyes of the blustering Goliaths and force them to behave!", leaving Vishinsky with nothing left to do but sit down. He was a candidate for the position of United Nations Secretary-General in 1953, but did not win. Instead, he returned to the Philippines and was a candidate for the nomination as the presidential candidate for the Liberal Party, but lost at the party convention to the incumbent Elpidio Quirino, who ran unsuccessfully for re-election against Ramon Magsaysay. Quirino had agreed to a secret ballot at the convention, but after the convention opened, the president demanded an open roll-call voting, leaving the delegates no choice but supporting Quirino, the canditate of the party machine. Feeling betrayed, Romulo left the Liberal Party and became national campaign manager of Magsaysay, the candidate of the opposing Nacionalista Party who won the election.

In April 1955 he led the Philippines' delegation to the Asian-African Conference at Bandung.

Romulo, in all, wrote and published 18 books, which included "The United" (novel), "I Walked with Heroes" (autobiography), "I Saw the Fall of the Philippines", "Mother America" and "I See the Philippines Rise" (war-time memoirs).

He died, at 86, in Manila on 15th of December 1985 and was buried the Heroes’ Cemetery (Libingan ng mga Bayani). He was honoured as the Philippines’ greatest diplomat in the 20th Century.Fact|date=October 2007 In 1980, he was extolled by United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim as "Mr. United Nations" for his valuable services to the United Nations and his dedication to freedom and world peace.

Awards and decorations

Romulo is perhaps among the most decorated Filipino in history, which includes 82 honorary degrees from different international institutions and universities and 74 decorations from foreign countries:

*Philippine Congressional Quezon Service Cross, April 17, 1951
*Philippine National Artist in Literature, 1982
*United States Presidential Medal of Freedom, January 12, 1984
*Boy Scouts of America Silver Buffalo Award
*Distinguished Service Star of the Philippines
*Philippine Gold Gross
*Distinguished Conduct Star
*Purple Heart
*Presidential Unit-Citation with Two Oak Leaf Clusters
*Philippine Legion of Honor (Commander)
*Grand Cross of the Order of the Phoenix from the Greek Government
*Grand Cross of the Order of Carlos Manuel do Cespedes from the Republic of Cuba
*Pulitzer Prize in Correspondence, 1942
*World Government News First Annual Gold Nadal Award (for work in the United Nations for peace and world government), March 1947
*Princeton University- Woodrow Wilson Memorial Foundation Gold Medal award ("in recognition Of his contribution to public life"), May 1947
*International Benjamin Franklin Society's Gold Medal (for “distinguished world statesmanship in 1947”), January 1948
*Freeman of the City of Plymouth, England, October 1948
*United Nations Peace Medal
*World Peace Award
*Four Freedoms Peace Award
*Named in the 100 Most Prominent Rotarians in the world
*Philippine Presidential Medal of Merit, July 3, 1949
*Hero of the Republic Award, 1984

Controversy

Rómulo's heroism and legacy, however, was challenged back in the late 1980s when chemist-turned-historian Pío Andrade, Jr. published a well-documented book, The Fooling of America, The Untold Story of Carlos P. Romulo, which exposed the alleged lies (including the veracity of some of his awards and decorations) of Rómulo during his stint as an important Filipino leader from World War II up to the Marcos regime. However, according to the author himself (in the introduction to the book's revised edition), his book was "ignored by the press, the Philippine Congress, and the National Historical Institute, all of whom should have taken action to remove Romulo from the pantheon of Filipino heroes. Fact|date=February 2007

Despite compelling evidence in the book about Rómulo's alleged deceptions, he is still widely regarded as a Filipino hero.

Anecdotes from Beth Romulo through "Reader's Digest" (June 1989)

At the third UN General Assembly, held in Paris in 1948, the USSR’s deputy foreign minister, Andrei Vishinsky, sneered at Romulo and challenged his credentials: “You are just a little man from a little country.” “It is the duty of the little Davids of this world,” cried Romulo, “to fling the pebbles of truth in the eyes of the blustering Goliaths and force them to behave!”

When the UN official seal, which depicts the world, was being selected, Romy looked it over and demanded, “where is the Philippines?” “It’s too small to include,” explained US Senator Warren Austin, who headed the committee. “If we put in the Philippines it would be no more than a dot.” “I want that dot!” Romy insisted. Today, if you look at the UN seal, you will find a tiny dot between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea.

Romulo was a dapper little man (barely five feet four inches in shoes). When they waded in at Leyte beach in October 1944, and the word went out that General MacArthur was waist deep, one of Romy’s journalist friends cabled, “If MacArthur was in water waist deep, Romulo must have drowned!”

In later years, Romulo told another story himself about a meeting with McArthur and other tall American generals who disparaged his physical stature. "Gentlemen," he declared, "When you say something like that, you make me feel like a dime among nickles."

Books

*"I Saw the Fall of The Philippines"
*"Mother America"
*"My Brother Americans"
*"I See The Philippines Rise"
*"The United"
*"Crusade in Asia" (The John Day Company, 1955; about the 1953 presidential election campaign of Ramon Magsaysay)
*"The Meaning of Bandung"
*"The Magsaysay Story" (with Marvin M. Gray, The John Day Company 1956, updated re-edition by Pocket Books, Special Student Edition, SP-18, December 1957; biography of Ramon Magsaysay, Pocket Books edition updated with an additional chapter on Magsaysay's death)
*"I Walked with Heroes" (autobiography)

ee also

*United States Congressional Delegations from Philippines
*The Thomasites
*Philinda Rand

External links

* [http://www.un.org/ga/55/president/bio04.htm Extensive biography]
*CongBio|R000419

References

*cite book | author=Zaide, Gregorio F. | title=Philippine History and Government|publisher=National Bookstore Printing Press |year=1984
*Citation | author=Romulo, Beth | title=Unforgettable Carlos P. Romulo| magazine=Reader's Digest|date=June 1989