Bernardita Leonido Catalla (February 18, 1958 – April 2, 2020) was a

Filipina Filipinos ( tl, Mga Pilipino) are the people who are citizens of or native to the Philippines. The majority of Filipinos today come from various Austronesian ethnolinguistic groups, all typically speaking either Filipino, English and/or other ...

career diplomat who was last appointed the Philippine ambassador to

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

. Prior to her posting in Lebanon, she was also assigned to

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, and

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Early life and education

Catalla was born on February 18, 1958, in

Makati Makati ( ), officially the City of Makati ( fil, Lungsod ng Makati), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. Makati is the financial center of the Philippines; it has the highest concentration ...

, then a part of the Province of Rizal. She graduated in 1979 from

University of the Philippines Los Baños The University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB; fil, Unibersidad ng Pilipinas Los Baños), also referred to as UP Los Baños or colloquially as Elbi (), is a public research university primarily located in the towns of Los Baños and Bay ...

with a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication arts. From 1987 to 1993, she studied at the

University of the Philippines Diliman , image = University of The Philippines seal.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = Official Logo of UP Diliman , motto = Honor and Excellence , established = February 12, 194 ...

for her master's degree in communication research and in 1991, she graduated with a Master of Arts degree in development studies from the

International Institute of Social Studies The International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam is an independent and international graduate school of policy-oriented critical social science. ISS was established in 1952 by Dutch universities and the Neth ...

Erasmus University Rotterdam Erasmus University Rotterdam (abbreviated as ''EUR'', nl, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam ) is a public research university located in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The university is named after Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, a 15th-century humanist ...

Career

Philippine Ambassador to Lebanon Presents Credentials to the President of Lebanon 01

Catalla first entered the Philippine Foreign Service in 1993. She was the principal assistant and then acting director of the

ASEAN ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, militar ...

office from 1994 to 1995. From 1996 to 2001, she was assigned at the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur as Vice Consul and then Consul. She was recalled back to the Home Office to become the Director of the Office of United Nations and International Organizations from 2001 to 2002 and Passport Director from 2002 to 2005. She was consul of the Philippine Embassy in Jakarta from 2005 to 2011 and Director of the Office of Asia & Pacific Affairs at the Home Office from 2011 to 2014. She was posted to the Philippine Consulate in

Consul-General A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

from 2014 to 2017. During her stint in Hong Kong, she spearheaded the amendment of contracts of foreign domestic helpers to include a ban on dangerous window cleaning, which according to The Sun Hong Kong, was her biggest legacy to the Filipino community in the region. After that, she was promoted to the Embassy in Beirut as

Ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

from 2017 up to her death in 2020. As Ambassador to Lebanon, she spearheaded the voluntary mass repatriation program of

OFWs An overseas Filipino ( fil, Pilipino sa ibayong-dagat) is a person of full or partial Filipino origin—i.e., people who trace back their ancestry to the Philippines but living or residing outside the country. This term generally applies to b ...

in the country.

Personal life

In September 2015, Catalla's nephew was murdered. According to news reports, she treated him as her own son.

Death

In April 2020, she died of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in Beirut, Lebanon.

Posthumous honors

Order of Sikatuna The Order of Sikatuna ( fil, Orden ng Sikatuna) is the national order of diplomatic merit of the Republic of the Philippines. It is conferred upon individuals who have rendered exceptional and meritorious services to the Republic of the Philipp ...

(Rank of Datu, Gold Distinction) by Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on behalf of President

Rodrigo Duterte Rodrigo Roa Duterte (, ; born March 28, 1945), also known as Digong, Rody, and by the initials DU30 and PRRD, is a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the 16th president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He is the chairperson ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Catalla, Bernardita 1958 births 2020 deaths Ambassadors of the Philippines to Lebanon Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Lebanon People from Makati University of the Philippines Los Baños alumni International Institute of Social Studies alumni University of the Philippines Diliman alumni Filipino women ambassadors