The Mabuhayradio.com started the remembrance of the Filipino diplomats who served with distinction the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles during their lifetime. The Filipino-American Community of Los Angeles, Inc. (FACLA), in cooperation with the MabuhayRadio.com, the Philippine-American National Association (PANA) and the Media Breakfast Club (MBC), remembered for the first time the deceased Filipino diplomats during a mass before the community Christmas party at the FACLA Social Hall on Dec. 22, 2007. Rev. Fr. Sean McGrath celebrated the mass. He is a priest at the St. Columban Filipino Parish Community in the Historic Filipinotown District of Los Angeles, California. During the mass, the Reverend Fr. McGrath read the names of the departed Consuls General Pedro G. Ramirez and Manding Fernandez and Consul Ramon Munda and offered prayers for the eternal repose of their souls.

The token of remembering the departed diplomats who served at the Philippine Consulate General would become part of the FACLA tradition during the Christmas season. This was the assurance given to this web site by Dr. Jose B. Baldonado, the FACLA president. The mass before the Christmas party also remembers the FACLA officers and members who have gone to the Blue Yonder.

The staff of this web site has still to receive the brief biographical sketches and official photos of the departed diplomats from the Philippine Consulate General. We have been provided by Peter Ramirez, however, some data about, and photos of, his father, the late Ambassador Ramirez. All of these would now be part of this web site's Obituary and Memorial-Park Section.

Ambassador Ramirez was a valedictorian at Tayabas High School, in Quezon Province and went on to the University of the Philippines, where he earned a Doctorate of Law. He joined the Foreign Service after World War II. He helped design the first Philippine passport. His first post in the United States was Honolulu, then Seattle, then San Francisco, back to Honolulu, then Washington, DC, and then finally Los Angeles.

(Updated on Jan. 5, 2008).