PH’s China envoy suffers stroke

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines’ ambassador to China, Sonia Brady, has suffered a stroke and is now confined in a Chinese hospital in Beijing, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Friday, August 24.

“Amb Sonia Brady was brought to the hospital last Wednesday after she passed out in her residence in Beijing. She is undergoing tests and waiting for the results. Her condition is stable but she is under observation,” said DFA spokesperson Raul Hernandez in a text message.  

Earlier on Friday, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario confirmed this in a separate text message to the news website Vera Files. “Amb Brady suffered a stroke and is hospitalized where her condition is being monitored closely,” Del Rosario said. (Read the entire report here.)

Brady turned 71 last Wednesday, August 22, Vera Files reported. When President Benigno Aquino III named her ambassador to China last May, Brady “had just recovered” from a mild stroke.

Aquino sent her to Beijing amid the lowest point in Philippine-China diplomacy, sparked by the Scarborough Shoal standoff in April. She had served in Beijing in the past. – Rappler.com