Editor's Note

Diplomacy. As an institutional project of the Manila Rotary Club, giving due recognition to our top performing diplomats through the Outstanding Ambassador Award is indeed a project worthy of the RCM brand. Held in partnership with the Carlos P. Romulo Foundation for Peace and Development, this annual award-giving ceremony could not be more relevant and timely as it is today.

As our country navigates through the intricacies of foreign relations, and as our political leaders continue to write, rewrite and craft a foreign policy that is suited to our times, promote our national interest, and protect our sovereignty and territorial integrity, the career officials who are tasked to articulate, pursue (and even help write out) these policies deserve to be commended. Hence, today, we confer our Outstanding Ambassador Award to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs.

While diplomacy predates recorded history (remember how tribal groups succeeded in establishing relations with other tribes and visitors), it is interesting to note that it was only towards the end of the 12th century that the term “ambassador” appeared, initially in Italy. Derived from the medieval Latin ambactiare, meaning “to go on a mission,” the term was used to describe various envoys. Common in both Italy and France in the 13th century, it first appeared in English in 1374 in Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer. By the late 15th century, the envoys of secular rulers were commonly called ambassadors, though the papacy continued to send legates and nuncii. In the 18th century the French term diplomate (“diplomat” or “diplomatist”) came to refer to a person authorized to negotiate on behalf of a state.

Our country’s diplomats and ambassadors play a huge role in maintaining healthy relations with other nations. With diplomacy now being regarded as the art and science of maintaining peaceful relationships between nations, groups, or individuals, our ambassadors and diplomats are front and center in ensuring peaceful relations through discussions and resolutions of various issues, such as conflict, trade, the environment, matters affecting our overseas workers, technology, or maintaining security.

It is, therefore, truly apt for the First Rotary Club of Asia, the mother of all clubs in the region, to honor the career officials who have made a mark and self-effacingly contributed their time and expertise in helping make this world a better and more peaceful place to live in – by building goodwill and better friendships among nations.

Today, we congratulate this year’s recipient of The Outstanding Ambassador Award – Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique A. Manalo.