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By Katrice R. Jalbuena, Reporter
Three Filipinos have been chosen
by Chinese officials to carry the Olympic torch as it makes its way
to site of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
The three are CNN’s Beijing
Bureau Chief Jaime FlorCruz, his 17-year-old daughter Michelle
FlorCruz, and marketing executive Marco Torres, according to
Ambassador Sonia Cataumber Brady, the Philippine envoy to China.
“It’s a great honor for the
Philippines to be represented in the Olympic-torch relay through
Jimmy, Michelle and Marco,” Brady said in her report to the
Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila. “We also hope that during
the Beijing Olympics, we will finally win our very first Olympic
gold medal.”
The Beijing City government
selected FlorCruz and his daughter in recognition of their
contribution to China.
FlorCruz, formerly Time
magazine’s Beijing bureau chief, has lived in China for 37 years.
He first arrived in the Chinese capital in August 1971, as one of
the 15 Filipino youths who were invited by the China Friendship
Association for a three-week study tour.
“I covered the 1988 Seoul
Olympics for Time magazine and Sports Illustrated,” FlorCruz said.
“Now I am looking forward to covering the Beijing Games as well,
this time as CNN’s Beijing bureau chief. It would be fun not just
to report on it but to actually participate as one of the
torchbearers during the relay.”
Michelle FlorCruz, a student at
the International School in Beijing, will carry the Olympic torch on
August 3 in Tangshan City. The elder FlorCruz is scheduled to carry
the Olympic torch on August 6 in Beijing, two days before the
opening ceremonies.
“I was ‘made in China,’
born in the Philippines, and bred in Beijing,” the daughter said.
“I guess that makes me a top-quality product, a fusion of
different cultures.”
Torres, 38, will carry the
Olympic torch on July 5 in Lanzhou, Gansu province. He placed second
among eight foreigners selected by an Olympic sponsor company to
carry the torch through an Internet-voting competition called
“expats for Olympic torchbearers” conducted last year.
“I love Beijing, and I love the
Olympics,” Torres said. “Proof of this is that I declined an
opportunity to move to Shanghai if only for the Olympics. I also
know now that my destiny of being in the Olympics will be
fulfilled.”
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