Filipino FM dies in Taiwan

Lin Sung-huan, head of the East Asian and Pacific Affairs Department of Taiwan's foreign ministry, said Ople died after emergency treatment at Minsheng Healthcare, a hospital in northern Taiwan's Taoyuan county.

Lin said his ministry had notified the Philippine government and Ople's family and that the Taiwan government would provide the family with necessary assistance.

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Officials in Manila said Ople's body was expected to be flown to Manila late Sunday.

In Manila, his daughter Susan Ople spoke of her father's death, saying, "we've lost him." She urged the public to pray for his soul.

She was to have joined Ople in Bahrain, where he was headed to rendezvous with President Gloria Arroyo on a visit.

Taiwan's foreign ministry said earlier that Ople, who was 76, was taken ill late Saturday while on a Japan Asia Airways flight to Bangkok.

"The plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Chiang Kai-shek airport at around 10:30 pm (1430 GMT Saturday)," foreign ministry spokesman Richard Shih told AFP.

He said Ople was rushed to Minsheng Healthcare, but declined to give details on Ople's illness.

"The (details of the) illness should be given by Ople's family... We respect their desires," he said.

A statement from his family said Ople had died of natural causes "in the service of his country" after efforts to revive him both on the plane and at the hospital failed.

Taiwan's state-run Central News Agency said Ople did not show any sign of life when a doctor at the airport was called in to the aircraft.

"The Philippines government will send an airplane to Taiwan to bring back the body," it quoted an airport source as saying.