JEDDAH, 9 November 2003 — Former Philippine Ambassador Candidato Baraocor Gutoc died from lingering illness on Wednesday, according to his immediate relatives in the Kingdom.
Relatives and friends paid tribute and offered prayers to the late diplomat on Friday afternoon at the gymnasium of the International Philippine School in Jeddah (IPSJ).
“It is a sad day for us to have lost one of our great diplomats,” Vice Consul Jose V. Jacob, acting head of the Philippine Consulate in Jeddah, said in a telephone interview.
Gutoc, who was born in Marantao town in the southern Philippine province of Lanao del Sur, had served in Saudi Arabia longer than any other Filipino diplomat.
“Ambassador Gutoc is a soft-spoken and a workaholic person. His achievements are immense and immeasurable,” Edris Tamano, a brother of the late ambassador to Saudi Arabia Mauyag Tamano and also a close family friend of Gutocs, said in a phone interview.
Tamano said Gutoc’s long trail of public service as a diplomat includes his stint as ambassador to Bahrain after heading the Philippine mission in Bangladesh (1996-2002). He also headed the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Middle East and African Affairs division (1994-1996), minister counselor and consul general in Jeddah (1987-1994), consul general in Riyadh (1985), vice consul and consul in Jeddah in 1974-1986.
In early ‘80s, Gutoc and the late Ambassador Mauyag Tamano were instrumental in setting up the Philippine Islamic Center at the Philippine Embassy (Chancery) premises, paving the establishment of the community school called Philippine School in Jeddah (PSJ), now the IPSJ.
Gutoc was married to Bai Tomanina Ali of the prominent Ali clan of Lanao.
