Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Ople on Thursday paid tribute to the late Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario by calling the latter a role model for his efforts and initiatives for the welfare of overseas Filipino workers.

In a statement, Ople remembered Del Rosario leading the mass evacuation of more than 24,000 OFWs in countries such as Libya, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and Egypt, as well as his aid efforts to over 80,000 Filipino migrant workers between 2011 and 2015.

She also said that Del Rosario always welcomed the comments of non-profit migrant workers’ organizations during his stint as DFA Secretary and even after resigning from his post in 2016.

“One of the best examples of servant-leadership in times of our workers’ greatest need would be that of Secretary del Rosario, and for that, he will always be remembered fondly and with gratitude by the overseas employment sector,” Ople said in the same statement.

Del Rosario was best known as the chief of the DFA from 2011 to 2016, during the administration of the late President Benigno S. Aquino III.

He led the agency and the country overseas in many landmark historical moments, including in the arbitration case between the Philippines and China where the arbitral tribunal decided in favor of the Philippines’ claim over the West Philippine Sea.

Before that, he served as the country’s Ambassador to the United States from 2001 to 2006.

Del Rosario died on Tuesday while en route to San Francisco, California in the United States.