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Jean Mangaluz - Philstar.com
December 30, 2025 | 4:02pm
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. awards the Order of Lakandula to the late Migrant Workers Secretary Susan “Toots” Ople, with her daughter Susanne Laurie Estelle Ople Osorio receiving the award on her behalf on December 30, 2025.
RTV Malacañang / Facebook
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. awarded the late Migrant Workers Secretary Susan “Toots” Ople with the Order of Lakandula on Tuesday, December 30.
During an awarding ceremony in Malacañan Palace, Marcos lauded the late secretary. Ople had been the first secretary installed in the newly formed Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), and she had laid the groundwork for the work that the agency was still doing.
“I think the reason that she focused on OFWs is because there is – it is very easy for us when our kababayans go abroad, you know, out of sight, out of mind. And they do have special problems and they do have special challenges and it’s only the government that is there that can help them,” Marcos said.
“And that’s the role that she took even when she was still out of government. But the moment she got into government, again, she laid the groundwork. Everything that we are doing now, all of the successes that you see, she laid the groundwork for that,” he added.
The late DMW secretary was awarded the Order of Lakandula with the rank of Grand Cross. The Order of Lakandula is one of the highest awards given to civilian Filipinos by the president. Recipients of the awards were recognized to have demonstrating a dedication to service and public welfare.
Ople’s daughter, Susanne Laurie Estelle Ople Osorio, accepted the award on behalf of her family.
“All that my mother did was, at its core, a labor of love,” Osorio said.
Also present in the ceremony was current DMW Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac, as well as Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Administrator Patricia Yvonne Caunan.
“Sec. Toots will always be our pillar of strength, our beacon of hope, our pride and joy,” Cacdac said.
Ople died in 2023 amid a battle with breast cancer. She was 61 years old.
