Carlos P. Romulo

Carlos Peña Rómulo (1899–1985) was a Filipino diplomat, statesman, soldier, journalist, and author who served eight Philippine presidents. In 1942, as a newspaper publisher, he became the first Asian to win the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for predicting the outbreak of World War II in the Pacific. During the war, he served as General Douglas MacArthur's aide-de-camp and was the legendary 'Voice of Freedom' broadcasting from Corregidor.

Romulo was a signatory of the United Nations Charter in San Francisco in 1945, famously demanding that the word 'independence' be included as a goal for colonial peoples. In 1949, he was elected the fourth President of the UN General Assembly—the first Asian to hold the position. As Foreign Secretary, he co-founded the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1967 and was declared a National Artist of the Philippines.