Senators honor ex-President Ramos as visionary, peerless leader

The Senate of the Philippines on Monday adopted a resolution honoring late President Fidel V. Ramos.

The chamber adopted proposed Senate Resolution 72 filed by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, taking into consideration several other resolutions.

In his sponsorship speech, Zubiri honored Ramos for being a military man, politician, a statesman of the highest order "whose mark upon the nation reverberates to this day, long after his term in Malacanang."

The lawmaker mentioned Ramos' service in the military specifically when the latter fought during the Korean War and was later on named as Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces in 1986 and as Secretary of Defense in 1988.

"As president, he brought his military mind to the table and set the benchmark for hard work and discipline, the standard for boldness, and the template for fast action and quick results...I recall that he used to start his meetings at 4:30 in the morning until the wee hours of the night," he said.

Zubiri lauded Ramos for paving the way for a series of reform measures which emancipated consumers from "bad service and poor choices."

"He smashed protectionist laws, monopolies, and trade barriers, ensuring that our people would no longer have to be under the mercy of just one telephone company or one airline or one power company," the Senate chief said.

Ramos' reforms also sparked revolution in the Information Technology (IT) sector and allowed the Philippines to join the world in the shift to mobile communications, he added.

Further, the Senate president acknowledged Ramos' role in institutionalizing the Build-Operate-Transfer scheme in infrastructure. This, he said, freed public resources by harnessing private capital

"Much has been said about his Philippines 2000 program, and his vision of socio-economic progress for the country, resulting in our emergence as the Asian tiger cub of the nineties. But alongside this, I wish to stress that he did not only work to bring prosperity to our people, but also peace in the land. He understood, perhaps more than any other Philippine president before him or since, that there is no real progress without peace," Zubiri said.

It was also Ramos who "met rebel groups eye to eye, respecting their struggle and their cause, and offered not temporary truce but permanent peace," he went on.

"We in Mindanao will always hold him in high regard for his initiatives towards peace. And as a legislator, I do not think that the Bangsamoro Organic Law would have been possible without the foundation of the peace deals he laid out during his presidency," he said.

"I cannot even imagine, Mr. President, if he had not pushed for these peace efforts, and for a setup like the ARMM. If we did not have the ARMM, I think Mindanao would still be in the midst of war at this point," he added.

In ending his speech, Zubiri recalled Ramos' State of the Nation Address in 1997 where the latter said that the greatest accomplishment of his administration had been to “bring back the Filipinos' sense of self-respect and pride, of faith in ourselves, and of confidence in the future.”

"We join the country in mourning the passing of this great, peerless leader, and our sincerest condolences go out to his family," he said.

"Although we are made poorer by his passing, he left behind a rich legacy and lessons that will serve us well if we heed them, so we can finish the grand dream that Fidel Valdez Ramos envisioned for the country he loved so much," he ended.

Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda, Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva, Senators Ramon Revilla. Sherwin Gatchalian, Pia Cayetano, Raffy Tulfo, Robin Padilla, Bong Go, and Jinggoy Estrada also shared their tributes during the plenary session.

In his first ever co-sponsorship speech, Padilla said that it was Ramos who granted him the conditional pardon with parole conditions in 1997.

"Bahagi rin si Ginoong Tabako, kung siya po ay aming tawagin, sa aking paglaya mula sa bilangguan. Siya po ang nagbigay sa akin ng conditional pardon, with parole conditions," Padilla said.

Padilla, who was convicted for illegal possession of firearms in 1994 and sentenced to a 21-year prison term, was granted absolute pardon by former President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016.

Like Zubiri, Padilla also honored Ramos for initiating the 1996 Final Peace Agreement also known as the Jakarta Accord which led to the creation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

"Si Pangulong FVR ay maituturing kasama ng ating mahal na Ginoong Pangulo na ama ng kapayapaan sa Muslim Mindanao. Ito ay isang ganap, isang katotohanan, isang pamana para sa lahat na mga Pilipino, maging saan mang lupalop ng mundo," he said.

On Monday morning, the Philippine flag at the Senate of the Philippines was put at half-staff to honor Ramos.—LDF, GMA News