By Roy Mabasa

Ambassador-designate Mrs. Jana Šedivá, a veteran career diplomat and expert in Chinese study, is the new envoy of the Czech Republic to the Philippines.

Šedivá presented her Letters of Credence to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte in a ceremony at the Malacañan Palace on Tuesday, January 15.

During the ceremony, Šedivá conveyed the greetings of Czech President Miloš Zeman to President Duterte and the Filipino people and the assurance that during her stint, she will exert all efforts to expand mutually-beneficial cooperation between Prague and Manila.

The Czech envoy mentioned that bilateral relations between her country and the Philippines were always very friendly and gradually deepening in recent years.

“Czech and Filipino spiritual and political linkages are going far back in history, to the times of the first Jesuits and scientific expeditions to the Philippines and to the friendship of national hero of the Philippines, Dr. Jose Rizal, with a Czech citizen, Prof. Ferdinand Blumentritt, whom Rizal visited in the Czech lands in 1887 and to whom he also addressed his last letter,” said in a statement.

She further noted that Czech and Filipino people also share their love to Infant Jesus of Prague. In fact, she said a growing number of Filipino tourists are arriving every year to the Czech Republic to see the Child Jesus and its countless beautiful historical places.

At the height of the Second World War in the Pacific, Šedivá narrated that the Czech Republic, then Czechoslovakia, was among the countries whose citizens shed blood during the defense of the Philippines alongside Filipino soldiers in the battle of Bataan.

During a pull aside talks, the top Czech diplomat in Manila said President Duterte has expressed interest in deepening cooperation, particularly in defense.

Šedivá studied Sinology at Charles University in Prague and Beijing University. She worked as Deputy Director of the Department of Asia and the Pacific at the Czech Foreign Ministry until last December.

During her two decades long diplomatic carreer she served at Czech embassies in Jakarta and the Hague, Czech Centre in the Hague as well as EU´s Judicial Cooperation Unit – Eurojust.