IT is with deep pleasure that I share with our kind readers and friends of the BusinessMirror that on November 28, at the Official Residence of Mexico in Manila, I had the honor to bestow the outstanding business leader and Philippine-Mexico Business Council (PMBC) President ad honorem Juan Carlos del Rosario with the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle (Orden Mexicana del Águila Azteca, or OMAA), the highest recognition the Mexican government awards to non-Mexican citizens.
With this conferment, del Rosario’s tireless efforts in promoting bilateral ties between Mexico and the Philippines since the 1990s have been recognized and appreciated.
To name one example of the importance of his lifelong efforts to broaden the commercial relationship of both countries, he led two business delegations as a founding member of the PMBC, in the frame of the state visits undertaken by former presidents Fidel V. Ramos and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to Mexico.
Recently the awardee has shown his commitment in supporting social initiatives that increased awareness of Mexico in sports and youth development programs in the Philippines.
I was glad to attest how Juan Carlos is not only a successful businessman. Moreover, he is an endeared and beloved personality, proven by the attendance of more than 100 people to his award ceremony formed by his family and close friends with a robust group of businessmen headed by the first and current president of the PMBC, Raul Concepcion, and Arthur Tan—both high level representatives from the foreign affairs department, members of Congress and leaders of Mexican companies with investments in the Philippines.
I wish to highlight that the conferment of the OMAA to this outstanding Filipino represents undoubtedly a milestone in renewing the long-standing friendship between Mexico and the Philippines. Moreover, it is a call to further strengthen bilateral ties and deepen the economic and commercial connections between both countries, not simply as partners but as sister nations.
Historic moment
ON December 1, in what has been the most attended takeover of a Mexican president in history witnessed by representatives of 110 countries, including 13 heads of state, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was sworn in as the President of the United Mexican States before the Congress of the Republic.
After saluting his international guests and members of the diplomatic corps in Mexico’s National Palace, President Lopez Obrador was part of another historical and significant moment we he received the “Indigenous People’s Leadership Staff” from leaders of the 68th original Indigenous Mexican cultures—the first time in modern history to ever been granted to a Mexican president.
He subsequently addressed 160,000 people, an occasion in which he reiterated his vow to begin the country’s “Fourth Transformation” through infrastructure development—an ambitious social-welfare agenda, government austerity, peace and honesty.
Lopez Obrador’s rise to the presidency comes with great hopes of a new future for Mexican people. Indeed, the strong support shown in the polls, where he won with 52 percent of the total votes, gave him a powerful base of support to lead his ambitious agenda of transformation for Mexico.
It is worth highlighting that he has promised publicly to not defraud Mexico in this historic time for the nation, and invited everyone to “to build the justice and happiness that the Mexican people deserve, as well as a new life for this great nation.”
In this overwhelming task, Lopez Obrador and the new Secretary of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard will have all the support and commitment of the embassy of Mexico in the Philippines and its Mexican Foreign Service members to work together to achieve the Fourth Transformation of our nation.