From Adversity to Diplomacy
By Colleen Smith
Every once in a while, an individual comes along and personifies a
people, a culture. By living out his life, he captures the essence of an
entire people.
Ambassador Rodolfo A. Arizala ("Rudy") to his family, relatives and
friends) is one such person. Like many natives of the Philippines, he is
no stranger to poverty. Yet, he managed to rise above disadvantage and
achieve positions of power and prestige through hard work, intellect and
integrity.
Ambassador Arizala was exposed to the adversities of the islands like
most Filipinos. Born prematurely in the aftermath of a typhoon, he
struggled for life from his earliest days. For lack of an incubator,
nurses surrounded the infant Arizala with hot water bottles and
suggested he be named Rodolfo after the actor Rudolph Valentino. That
was in year 1929.
The baby not only survived, he thrived. He was just four years old when
he began scribbling words, imitating his father who wrote reports in the
evenings. Even before entering school, he developed the habit of
perusing newspapers, albeit the comic strips. Given his interests and
aptitudes, Arizala's mother assumed her young son would develop into a
writer or an artist.
In his autobiographical notes, he recalls that he again faced a
life-threatening situation as a young boy. Following a strong typhoon,
he was washing his feet at the still swollen river near his house when
he slipped on the muddy riverbank, slid into the river and was carried
away by the strong currents. A neighbor, who heard Arizalas mothers
cry, saved the young boy.
He went on through the remainder of his relatively uneventful youth.
Ever a devoted and gifted student, as a middle schooler he learned
Japanese, the first of several languages he would take up throughout his
career.
Like their neighbors, Arizala and his family were evacuated after the
Japanese Imperial Forces attacked Pearl Harbor and invaded the
Philippines. Subsequently, his school in Infanta, faced with a lack of
rooms, books and other equipment, could not open its doors after World
War II. Arizala's father enrolled him in Rizal Standard Academy in a
town in Laguna Province. He graduated as high school Salutatorian in 1948.
Arizala then entered vocational school where he studied bookkeeping and
stenography and courses that would serve him well later in his career.
He entered college as a pre-law student, worked during the day and
studied at night. After finishing his Associate in Arts degree in 1950,
he enrolled at the Manuel L. Quezon School of Law, where he completed
his first two years of law. Then he transferred to the newly opened law
school in Intramuros, the Lyceum of the Philippines where he graduated
in April 1954 with a Bachelor of Laws Degree. He passed the bar
examinations that same year.
His law career was short-lived, however. Arizala remembers that while
practicing law, he had plenty of cases but often not a single centavo in
his pocket. Arizala frequently rendered legal services free of charge to
poor people who could not afford to pay. Clients paid him with chickens,
eggs, vegetables and fruits. "I was poor financially, but rich in
friends," Arizala remembers.
However, it was not the lack of financial reward but corruption that cut
short his career as a lawyer. A turning point came when Arizala had a
case before a judge, who dismissed his case before even hearing his
argument. "I was so disappointed that I lost interest in the practice of
law," he said.
Law's loss was international relation's gain. Arizala went on to hold
one post after another in places as remote as India, Iran, Argentina and
Chile. In 1965, he earned a Masters of Arts Degree in International
Relations at Syracuse University in New York. Wherever he landed,
Arizala found himself a long way from home in the Philippines. And
wherever he was assigned, the Ambassador worked as a tireless
entrepreneur to promote and position his homeland.