JEDDAH — Philippine Ambassador to Lebanon Bernardita Catalla, aged 62, died from coronavirus in a Beirut hospital on Thursday, reports said quoting a statement from Foreign Ministry of the Philippines.

"With deep sadness, the Department of Foreign Affairs announces the untimely demise on 2 April 2020, of Ambassador Bernardita Catalla, Philippine Ambassador to Lebanon, from complications arising from Covid-19," the ministry said in a statement.

“A career diplomat for 27 years, service to the country has been the hallmark of Ambassador Catalla’s distinguished foreign service career,” the ministry said.

She served in key posts as Consul General in Hong Kong, in Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta and also as Passport Director “where she delivered frontline service to millions of Filipinos.”

Foreign Secretary of the Philippines Teodoro Locsin expressed his condolences as he hailed Catalla for her work as a diplomat.

"I extended her for a great job in a difficult post. I promised her Paris so she’d hang on. But she just laughed, 'Now I must learn French,'" Locsin shared on Twitter.

Since December 2019, she led the voluntary mass repatriation program of the Philippine Embassy in Beirut as the economic crisis in the country forced hundreds of workers from their jobs largely in the service industry and as domestic helpers.

"Her ever-ready smile and infectious laughter may have been extinguished but her dedication to our country will always be there as a guiding light for all members of the Philippine foreign service," the ministry said. — Agencies