Ambassador Roy A Cimatu, SEP 1994

Ambassador Roy A Cimatu was born in Bangui, Ilocos Norte on July 4, 1946. He graduated from the Philippine Military Academy in 1970 and earned a Bachelor of Science degree. He finished his Master in Business Administration from the Ateneo Graduate School of Business in 1994.

  
He started his military career as a Second Lieutenant in Mindanao at the start of the government campaign against the MNLF in Cotabato and Jolo in the early 70s and rose from the ranks as Platoon leader, Company Commander, Battalion Comdr, Brigade Comdr, Division Commander, South Com Comdr and eventually the 29th Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. As a Brigade Commander in 1997, he personally led an operation against a group of Abu Sayyaf who kidnapped four innocent civilians including a Japanese National in Glan, Saranggani Province, which resulted to the successful rescue of all the kidnapped victims; killing three including the leader and capturing the remaining four kidnappers. Because of this feat, he was promoted as a Brigadier General by Pres Fidel Ramos. During the height of the MILF challenge in Mindanao in 2000, he led the 4th Division in the capture of numerous MILF camps in Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur during the All-Out-War including Camp Bushra and Camp Abubakar. During his Division attack against a well entrenched MILF camp in Lanao del Norte, his convoy was ambushed but was able to neutralize the enemy without any casualty. At the height of this campaign he was promoted to Major General by then President Joseph Estrada. In 2001, as Commander of the Southern Command, having jurisdiction of all forces in Mindanao, he led his troops in the operation against the notorious Abu Sayyaf , a Muslim group linked to the extremist Al Qaeda operating in Basilan and Jolo which caused violence in the south including the beheading and kidnapping of foreign tourists. His relentless campaign led to the reduction of the ASG strength and armaments including the death of most of their leaders including Abu Sabaya and the rescue of American hostage, Gracia Burnham. He was appointed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, as the 29th Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, until his retirement from the military service in September 2002.
  
General Cimatu’s brilliancy in his command and staff assignments can be attributed to his preparations as indicated by the excellent marks he got in military schools here and abroad. Foremost among these was his Infantry Officer’s Advance Course from the Philippine Army Training Command in 1978 where he graduated at the top of his class with an average rating of 97.27%, a record in the Philippine Army which remained unbroken up to this time. He is a graduate of the United States Army Command and Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas where he was awarded a Command Plaque for Academic excellence, an honor only few had ever achieved. He is a licensed pilot both in fixed wing and helicopter.
 
Among his Military Awards were the Distinguished Conduct Star, the second highest Military award, two Gold Cross and numerous other awards. He also received the prestigious Cavalier Award from the Philippine Military Academy Alumni Association for Command and Administration. He was installed into the Hall of Fame in the United States Army Command and Staff College in 2003.

     Just after his retirement from the military service, he was invited to serve again the government as a civilian to provide assistance and protection to the one and a half million Filipinos working in different countries in the Middle East due to the US-Iraq War in 2003. He was appointed as Special Envoy to the Middle East and Chairman of the Presidential Middle East Preparedness Committee. The mandate of his committee was to provide assistance to Overseas Filipino Workers in conflict areas in the Middle East and put them out of harm’s way. Just before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, he went to Baghdad, Iraq, planned and supervised the orderly evacuation of the Filipinos out of Baghdad. During that War, Kuwait became very dangerous and the 60,000 OFWs working in Kuwait became vulnerable from rocket attacks by the Iraqis just across the border. Despite the urgent order from the Philippine Government for evacuation, most of the OFWs refused to leave Kuwait. He organized and prepared all the OFWs from the effects of the war. He stayed with the Filipinos in Kuwait and established a relocation/evacuation center farther away from the raging war close to the boundary of Saudi Arabia. With God’s blessings and prayers from the Filipino people, the 60,000 OFWs were able to withstand several days of rockets attacks. No Filipino was hurt during that war.  After the Iraq War, he led the deployment of the Philippine Humanitarian Contingent to Iraq, composed of soldiers and civilian medical teams which earned the respect and admiration of the Iraqi people for their dedication in extending humanitarian assistance to the people. While he was on short vacation in the Philippines from the Middle East, he was called upon to lead a government negotiating team for the surrender of a group of soldiers calling themselves as Magdalo Soldiers, who occupied the Oakwood Hotel in Makati. The Magdalo group later surrender within the day and agreed to “return to barracks” and be subjected to the Articles of War. In July 2004, he led a team which successfully rescued a Filipino hostage victim, OFW driver, Angelo dela Cruz who was kidnapped in Iraq by militants. He also planned and supervised the evacuation of Filipinos from the conflict areas in Dili, East Timor during the country’s internal conflict in 2005; evacuated more than 8,000 OFW’s from Lebanon during the Israel-Hizbollah War in 2006 and some Filipino Nationals from Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war in 2008. He was awarded by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo numerous Presidential Citations including the prestigious Gawad  Mabini with the Rank of Dakilang Kamanong.
  
He is the author of a book: “Out OF Harms Way” – the inside story of How the Philippine Government Kept the 1.5 million Overseas Filipino Workers deployed in the Middle East Safe and Secure during the 2003 US-Iraq War.