LEYTE 1st District Rep. Martin G. Romualdez on Tuesday morning paid his last respects to former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who was assasinated in Nara city in Western Japan last July 8 while delivering a campaign speech.

Romualdez, the House Majority Leader in the 18th Congress, personally visited the official residence of Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Koshikawa Kazuhiko to pay tribute to Abe whom he called “a dear friend of the Filipino people.”

He offered again his deepest condolences and sympathies to Abe’s wife, Mrs. Akie Abe; relatives, government and the people of Japan.

“With the deepest and most profound condolences and prayers, we mourn the loss and sudden passing of a great leader and true friend,” Romualdez wrote in the official condolence book.

Romualdez also cited Abe’s love, compassion and kindness for Filipinos and his huge role in making the alliance and people-to-people ties of the Philippines and Japan stronger.

Abe, 67, was shot from behind in a broad daylight by a gunman and was pronounced dead in the hospital five hours after the shooting.

Earlier, Romualdez mourned Abe’s death, saying “the world has lost a kind and decent man, a great leader and a statesman.”

“I join the country of Japan and the Filipino nation in mourning the death of the beloved leader,” Romualdez said.

“We send our collective wish across the sea that justice be served to his family and to the Japanese people. This senseless act of violence must be condemned,” the veteran House leader from Leyte said.

“Shinzo Abe is a dear friend of the Filipino people, and we are saddened by this dastardly attack on such a peaceful man. Our thoughts and prayers are with him, his family and the people of Japan,” Romualdez said.

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Ryan Ponce Pacpaco