Co Sponsorship Speech on Expressing Profound Sympathy and Sincere Condolences of the Senate on the Death of Honorable Fidel Valdez Ramos, 12th President of the Philippines (1992-1998), (SRN 72)
Mr. President, I am one with the nation in mourning the passing of the Twelfth President of the Republic, Former President Fidel Valdez Ramos.
President Ramos will always be remembered as “one of the most effective presidents in our nation’s history,” – to borrow the words of my father, in his brief tribute message to the late President Ramos.
President Ramos was the first president to have given the vice president, with a significant executive job to do, when it has been a long-standing tradition in the Philippine bureaucratic set-up that the Vice President is only allowed to perform purely symbolic ministerial duties, and to just wait for possible succession to the Office of the President. It was President Ramos who broke tradition and appointed his Vice President, then Vice President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, as Chief of the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission. And from then on, it has been the adopted practice of the elected president to appoint the Vice President to a concurrent executive position to help out in the delivery of the administration’s banner program.
During the time of President Ramos, the Philippines’ distasteful reputation as the Sick Man of Asia has metamorphosed into the promising “Tiger Cub Economy of Asia.”
President Fidel Ramos, was not only our president, he was a war hero, a decorated military serviceman, an advocate of peace, a statesman, a diplomat, and a public servant, who has dedicated his life to the service of the Filipino people.
Ipinapaabot po ng inyong abang lingkod ang atin pong marubdob na pakikiramay sa dating unang Ginang Amelita “Ming” Ramos, at sa kanilang mga anak, at sa buong angkan ng mga Ramos at sa kanilang malalapit na kaibigan at mga mahal sa buhay.
With that, Mr. President, this representation would like to be included among the authors and sponsors of the pertinent Senate Resolution filed, expressing our profound sympathy and paying tribute to the late Former President, Fidel Valdez Ramos. Thank you, Mr. President.