CNN's Beijing bureau chief Jaime FlorCruz, his 17-year-old daughter and a corporate marketing executive will represent overseas Filipinos to carry the Olympic flames in the forth-coming torch relay of the Beijing Games, the Philippine government said today.
In a report released by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Philippine Ambassador to China Sonia Cataumber Brady said it is a "great honor" for the Philippines to be represented in the Olympic torch relay through the trio.
FlorCruz and his daughter Michelle were selected by the Beijing Municipal government for their contribution to China, Brady said.
FlorCruz is scheduled to carry the Olympic torch on August 6 in Beijing, two days before the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. His daughter Michelle, a student at the International School in Beijing, will carry the Olympic torch on August 3 in Tangshan City.
Marco Antonio Torres, 38, a Beijing-based Filipino marketer for M Moser Associates, will carry the Olympic torch on July 5 in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, the foreign affairs department said.
"I covered the 1988 Seoul Olympics for TIME Magazine and Sports Illustrated. Now I am looking forward to covering the Beijing Games as well, this time as CNN'S Beijing Bureau Chief," FlorCruz was quoted as saying in the report.
"It would be fun not just to report on it but to actually participate as one of the torch bearers during the relay," he said.
FlorCruz first arrived in Beijing in August 1971, as one of the 15 Filipino youths invited by the China Friendship Association for a three-week study tour.
At the height of late president Ferdinand Marcos's authoritarian rule, FlorCruz, a former anti-Marcos student leader, decided to stay on, for 37 years.
After mastering Mandarin and spending time across China, FlorCruz re-found his passion for journalism and worked for Newsweek, TIME Magazine before landing at CNN.
"Beijing has brought me countless blessings. I met my Filipino wife and raised my two children here. It was also here where, 25 years ago, I started my career as an international journalist," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency June 19, 2008)