Siazon, ex-DFA chief, ambassador dies at 76

MANILA, Philippines – Former foreign affairs secretary Domingo Siazon Jr. has died of prostate cancer. He was 76.

His son Dan reported Siazon’s death through a Facebook post, according to Rappler news.

Siazon was foreign affairs secretary during the administration of former president Joseph Estrada.

A Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) official who confirmed his death said he died in Tokyo on May 3 at about 4:30 p.m. (Tokyo time).

Siazon was born on July 9, 1939 in Aparri, Cagayan.

He was also former Philippine ambassador to Japan and former director-general of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

Siazon was named in 1976 as Philippine ambassador to Austria, where he concurrently served as Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Vienna and to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Siazon obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the Ateneo de Manila University and earned a second degree in Physics from the Tokyo University of Education where he studied as a Japanese government scholar.

He also earned a Masters in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University in Massachusetts and an economics certificate from the Economic Institute of the University of Colorado.

Malacañang mourned the death of Siazon. 

“He belonged to the second generation of career diplomats who served with professionalism and rose according to merit. We pause in tribute to Domingo Siazon,” presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said in a statement.

“A cultured, urbane man, he leaves behind a record of distinguished service to the Republic, bringing honor to the flag wherever he served,” he said, extending sympathies to the Siazon family.