12th President of the Republic of the Philippines
June 30, 1992 - June 30, 1998
Fidel Valdez Ramos was born in Lingayen, Pangasinan to Narciso Ramos and Angela Valdez-Ramos, with two sisters: Leticia Ramos-Shahani, a former senator, undersecretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, and a United Nations (UN) official, Gloria Ramos, a former diplomat. Ramos is married to Amelita Martinez, popularly known as Ming Ramos, with five children: Angelina Jones, Josephine Samartino, Carolina Sembrano, Christine Jalasco and Gloria Ramos.
Ramos earned a government scholarship to study at the United States Military Academy more popularly known as West Point in New York, USA. This opportunity gave way for Ramos to enter a career as a professional soldier. from West Point a bachelor's degree in military engineering, he became a member of the Philippine Constabulary with a rank of second lieutenant in 1950. He was appointed by his cousin President Marcos as the PC chief during the martial Law years. After graduating
Although Ramos was one of the architects and implementors of President Marcos' Martial Law proclamation, he was one of the key persons, together with then Minister of National Defense Juan Ponce Enrile and Col. Gringo Honasan with a few hundred soldiers who joined millions of people that ended two decades of Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines, popularly known as the 1986 People Power EDSA Revolution.
The People Power Revolution led Corazon Aquino to presidency in February 1986. Because of the big contribution of Ramos in ending Marcos regime, Aquino appointed Ramos as AFP chief of staff, and after his retirement in the military, he was appointed to as secretary of national defense where he took an active role in defending President Aquino's government in a series of coup d'etat launched by the rightist soldiers led by Col. Gregorio Honasan in the late 1980's.
After the term of President Aquino in 1992, Ramos ran and won the May 11, 1992 election against Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Imelda Marcos, Jovito Salonga, Salvador Laurel, and Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr. His running mate, Cebu Governor Emilio Osmeña was defeated by Senator Joseph Estrada for the vice presidency. Ramos' lead over only slightly above half a million votes against Santiago, who was the most popular candidate especially with the youth, make him a plurality president. Santiago accuse Ramos of cheating and filed an election protest before the Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET). Santiago's protest was automatically withdraw when she ran and won a senatorial seat in the 1995 election. It was perceived and majority of the Filipino youth and young professional and idealists were convinced that Santiago won the presidency.
After his presidency, Ramos remained influential political leader in the Philippines, although he has always been rumored to be involved in attempts to grab power from the government. He joined members of the opposition and civil society in ousting President Joseph Estrada through People Power II or EDSA 2. On the heat of Arroyo's administration election-rigging scandal, he convinced Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo not to resign and recommended Arroyo to clear all issues regarding involvement in the wirteapped conversation with an election official. He suggested the president to start the process of charter change with a set of deadline in 2007 and transform the country's political system from presidential-unitarian government system into a parliamentary-federal form of government. However, Ramos' proposed charter change has not taken place due to strong opposition from various sectors and the silent majority.
No comments:
Post a Comment