FIDEL RAMOS

Fidel Valdez Ramos Official Photo as President of the Philippines (1995)

Fidel Ramos (1928-2022) was the president of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998. The former commander of the national police under Marcos, and his second cousin, Ramos helped Marcos establish martial law in 1972 but later turned his back on the dictator and supported Aquino in her fight against Marcos in 1986. and played a major role in the People Power struggle that ousted Marcos. He also helped protect Cory Aquino from coup attempts when he served as her armed forces chief of staff and defense secretary. Some sources claim Ramos was an architect of the Marcos’s martial law. Some believe that he was involved in two of coup attempts against Aquino (in 1987 and 1989).

According to Reuters: Ramos became a hero to many for defecting from Marcos' government, where he led the national police force, spurring the dictator's downfall during the 1986 popular uprising against his rule. Famous in later years for holding unlit cigars and known as FVR, Ramos attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and fought in the Korean War in the 1950s as a platoon leader. He served in the late 1960s in Vietnam as a leader of the Philippine Civil Action Group. Ramos held every rank in the Philippine army from second lieutenant to commander-in-chief. He never lost his military bearing and swagger, bragging many times "No soft jobs for Ramos." Though he gained less than 23 percent of the vote, Ramos soon polled at 66 percent support and his presidency was remembered for a period of peace, stability and growth. [Source: Karen Lema and Enrico Dela Cruz, Reuters, July 31, 2022]

According to Lonely Planet Ramos “made national unity a priority. He tried to finally reach peace deals with the patchwork of communist rebels, Muslim separatists and disaffected soldiers who led a rag-tag existence throughout the islands and frequently resorted to violence to score some attention. Some treaties and agreements were worked out, but often as one group would agree to lay down its arms, the members would simply go off and start another conflict. Meanwhile there was growing discontent among the populace as it became clear that just having your own constitution wasn't enough to shake off years of feeble economic growth. With an economy that had been dependent on the rent from the US bases and Japanese grants (which were cleverly designed to turn the Philippines into a market for Japanese goods rather than a competitor), the nation missed out on the economic boom that enriched its neighbors. [Source: Lonely Planet]

Fidel Ramos’s Life, Family and Interests

Fidel Valdez Ramos was born on March 18, 1928 in the town of Lingayen, Pangasinan. the site of a Japanese invasion in December 1941 and an American one in February, 1945. Educated at West Point and the University of Illinois and sometimes referred as an "American boy," Ramos was a competent but uncharismatic figure who often went by his grade school nickname "Steady Eddy. " A platoon leader who fought alongside U.S. forces in Korea and an officer in Vietnam, he peppered his speech with military terminology and used to entertain his friends by parachuting into his own birthday parties.

Fidel Ramos (left) with his wife Amelita (top, right) and his parents

Ramos's father, Narciso Ramos (1900-1986), was a lawyer, crusading journalist and 5-term legislator of the House of Representatives, who eventually rose to the position of Secretary of Foreign Affairs. As such, Narciso Ramos was the Philippine signatory to the ASEAN declaration forged in Bangkok in 1967 and was one of the founding fathers of the Liberal Party. His mother, Angela Valdez-Ramos (1905-1977), was an educator, woman suffragette and daughter of the respected Valdez clan of Batac, Ilocos Norte making him a second degree cousin to Ferdinand Marcos. He took his elementary education in Lingayen and secondary education at the University of the Philippines Integrated School and Centro Escolar University Integrated School. [Source: U.S. Military Academy, West Point]

Ramos and his wife Amelita have five daughters. Ramos was a Protestant not a Catholic. A Methodist who keeps a statue of the Virgin Mary in his office, he enjoyed golf and sometimes wore and red bandanna wrapped round his forehead. He often had an unlit cigar in his mouth but was never seen with a lighted one. He once attributed his success and good health to never eating pork, working eight days a week and "do not drink liquors more than what the doctors prescribe."

Ramos was very fond of karaoke and singing. In the 1990s. After Chinese President Jiang Zemin sang "Love Me tender" while cruising in Manila Bay, Philippine president Fidel Ramos told him, "That's the favorite song of Bill Clinton; you have to prepare. When he visits you, you will surprise him." According to Reuters: Ramos was a multi-tasking workaholic and athletic leader. When he was military chief, he would play golf and jog at the same time, running after his ball. His early morning jog was legendary among his staff officers and even at 80, he would jump to reenact what he did during the revolt in 1986. [Source: Karen Lema and Enrico Dela Cruz, Reuters, July 31, 2022]

Ramos’s Military Career

In 1946, Ramos, barely months after enrolling in the Philippines’ National University, joined the Philippine Military Academy as cadet and won a government scholarship to the United States Military Academy in West Point. He pursued further studies in engineering following his graduation from West Point in 1950, obtaining a Masters Degree in Civil Engineering in the University of Illinois, where he was also a government scholar in 1951. He is a licensed civil engineer in the Philippines, passing the board exams in 1953 and finishing in the top 10. In 1960, he topped Special Forces-Psy Operations-Airborne course at the United States Army Infantry School at Fort Benning. Ramos also holds a Master’s Degree in National Security Administration from the National Defense College of the Philippines and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the Ateneo de Manila University. [Source: U.S. Military Academy, West Point]

Ramos at West Point

In his military career, Ramos rose from 2nd Lieutenant infantry platoon leader in the Philippine Expeditionary Forces to Korea (PEFTOK) in 1952 during the Korean War to Chief of Staff of the Philippine Civil Action Group to Vietnam from 1966 to 1968. He is instrumental in founding the Philippine Army Special Forces, an elite paratroop unit skilled in community development as well as fighting communist insurgents. Ramos, along with the Philippines’ 20th Battalion Combat Team and his fellow West Point graduates of the 1950s, fought in the Korean War. Ramos was one of the heroes of the Battle of Hill Eerie,where he led his platoon to sabotage the enemy in Hill Eerie. He was also present in the Vietnam War as a non-combat civil military engineer.

Ramos has received several military awards including the Philippine Legion of Honor, the Gold Cross, Philippine Military Merit Medal, the United States Legion of Merit, the French Legion of Honor and the U.S. Military Academy Distinguished Award. When belittled by the press regarding his combat record, Ramos responded with trademark sarcasm (July 31, 1987): "I fought the communists as part of the battalion combat teams, I went up the ladder. Battalion staff officer. Company commander. Task Force commander. Special Forces group commander. Brigade commander. All in different periods in our country. Huk campaign. Korean War campaign. The Vietnam War, and I was the head of the advance party of the PHILCAG (Philippine Civil Action Group to Vietnam) that went to a tiny province at the Cambodian border — the so-called Alligator Jaw — War Zone Z where even Max Soliven said ‘The Viet-Cong will eat us up.’ Of course, we were physically there as non-combat troops. But you try to be a non-combat troop in a combat area — that is the toughest kind of assignment."

Ramos During the Marcos Period

Ramos served the Marcos regime for more than 20 years. He was head of the Philippine Constabulary, the country’s national police force, and was one of Marcos’ trusted advisers. He was a member of the infamous Rolex 12, an elite group of conspirators loyal to Marcos himself. Due to his accomplishments, Ramos became one of the candidates to become the new chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in 1981, to replace retiring General Romeo Espino. longest Martial law, chief of staff. However, Marcos instead opted and appointed his trusted military officer, General Fabian Ver, a graduate of the University of the Philippines, into the top military post. Thus, Ramos, Marcos' cousin was named AFP Vice-Chief of staff in 1982, became the military's second most powerful official after Ver and receiving the rank of three-star general. [Source: U.S. Military Academy, West Point]

On 8 August 1983, during a speech in Camp Crame to commemorate Philippine Constabulary Day, Marcos announced his removal of Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile from the chain of command, and the creation of a new arrangement with himself as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces until AFP Chief of Staff Ver. Marcos also removed the operational control of the Integrated National Police from the Philippine Constabulary under Ramos and transferred it under direct control of Ver; the Constabulary then had only administrative supervision over the INP.

Ramos and Marcos

When Ver was implicated in the 21 August 1983 assassination of former opposition Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr., Ramos became Acting AFP Chief of Staff until Ver's reinstatement in 1985 after he was acquitted of charges related to the killing. Ramos at this time also formed the Special Action Force of the Philippine Constabulary to deal with terrorist-related crimes.

On 22 February 1986, Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile protested alleged fraud committed by Marcos in the 1986 snap elections, withdrawing support and triggering the non-violent People Power Revolution. General Ramos later also defected and followed Enrile into Camp Crame, and the duo shifted their fealty to Corazon Aquino, the widow of Senator Aquino and Marcos' main election rival.Their move became the living symbol of military defiance against Marcos. The military followed his lead and swung the pendulum in Aquino’s favor. During the historic 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution, Ramos was hailed as a hero by many Filipinos for his decision to breakaway from the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos and pledge allegiance and loyalty to the newly established government of President Aquino. On 25 February, the "EDSA Revolution" reached its peak when Marcos, along with his family and some supporters, fled into exile in Hawaii with the assistance of the United States government, ending his 20-year rule, leaving Aquino to accede as the country's first female President.

Ramos was accused of condoning human rights violations due to his role in the imposition of Martial Law during the Marcos era; he was the commanding officer of the Philippine Constabulary and the Integrated National Police, and one of the most trusted and favored generals of Marcos, as well as a cousin. Of his martial law record, Primitivo Mijares has this for Ramos: "In the military, I could only point out to Major General Fidel V. Ramos, Constabulary chief, as the only relatively clean ranking officer of the armed forces."

Ramos Under Corazon Aquino

Ramos and Cory Aquino

After Aquino assumed the Presidency, she appointed Ramos Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and later Secretary of National Defense. During this time, Ramos personally handled the military operations that crushed seven coup attempts against the Aquino government. After the coup, the National Unification Commission was created, and its chairman Haydee Yorac, together with Ramos, recommended to President Aquino the granting of amnesty to the rebel military officers of the Reform the Armed forces Movement (RAM) led by Col. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan. After the amnesty was accepted, Ramos ordered the rebel soldiers to make 50 push ups as punishment. [Source: U.S. Military Academy, West Point]

In December 1991, Ramos declared his candidacy for President. However, he lost the nomination of the then-dominant party Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) to House Speaker Ramon Mitra, Jr. Days later, he bolted from the party LDP and cried foul and founded his own party, the Partido Lakas Tao (People Power Party), inviting Cebu Governor Emilio Mario Osmena to be his running mate as his Vice Presidential candidate. The party formed a coalition with the National Union of Christian Democrats (NUCD) of Senator Raul Manglapus and the United Muslim Democrats of the Philippines (UMDP) of Ambassador Sanchez Ali. Ramos and Osmena, together with Congressman (later House Speaker) Jose de Venecia, campaigned for economic reforms and improved national security and unity.

1992 Elections in the Philippines

In early spring 1992, everyone's attention was turned to the upcoming national elections. Who would be the first president elected since the restoration of democracy? What would be the composition of the new Congress? Would the new president and the new Congress strike out in bold new directions or would it be more business as usual? The future of the Philippines depended on the answers to these questions. Nearly 85 percent of eligible voters turned out to elect 17,205 officials, including the president, the vice president, 24 members of the Senate, 200 members of the House of Representatives, 73 governors, and 1,602 mayors. Voters were required to write the names of their desired candidates. Combined with the number of candidates, this meant it took several weeks to completely tally the votes. [Source: Library of Congress *]

Then Special Envoy to China and former President Fidel V. Ramos (2nd from right), with President Rodrigo R. Duterte (center), former President and Manila Mayor Joseph E. Estrada (left), former President and Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (2nd from left), and former President Benigno S. Aquino III (right), before the start of the National Security Council (NSC) meeting at the State Dining Room of the Malacañan Palace on July 27, 2016

The election was relatively peaceful; there was no threat of a military coup before, during, or after the election and only 52 election- related deaths were reported, compared to 150 in the 1986 presidential election. Despite claims of election fraud from losing candidates, the Commission on Elections apparently exercised effective control and relatively few voting irregularities were substantiated. Ramos won the election on his appeal for stability and a continuation of Aquino policies, and Santiago received strong support for her anticorruption candidacy. Cojuangco's substantial support, however, suggested that a large share of the electorate favored a return to the economic policies and the traditional patronage system of the Marcos era. *

In national and local elections held on May 11, 1992, Ramos and Joseph E. Estrada were elected president and vice president, respectively.
Despite winning, Ramos garnered only 23.58 percent of the vote, the lowest plurality in the country's history. Ramos won the seven-way race, narrowly defeating popular Agrarian Reform Secretary Miriam Defensor Santiago, who received 19.8 percent of the vote, and former Marcos crony Eduardo Cojuangco, who received 18.1 percent. The election results were marred by allegations of fraud. [Source: U.S. Military Academy, West Point]

Ramos succeeded Corazon Aquino as president of the Philippines on June 30, 1992. Ramos was secretary of national defense in the Aquino administration and was handpicked by Aquino to succeed her. At the time of his assumption into power, Ramos was the oldest person to become President of the Philippines at the age of 64. He was also the first Protestant President of the country and the only Filipino officer in history to have held every rank in the Philippine military from Second Lieutenant to Commander-in-Chief.

Ramos as President

In 1992, Fidel Ramos was chosen by Corazon Aquino as her successor and elected president in a seven way race in which he won with only 23.8 percent for the vote. Arguably one of the Philippines better presidents, Ramos is crediting with transforming the Philippines from a country with a history of poverty, corruption, rebellion, ineptitude and tax evasion into an economic marvel referred to as Asian tiger cub. One economist told Newsweek, "in three years Ramos achieved what Taiwan and Korea took two decades to do."

Ramos immediately launched an economic revitalization plan premised on three policies: government deregulation, increased private investment, and political solutions to the continuing insurgencies within the country Ramos kick started the economy, generated new growth and gave the poor and disenfranchised hope. Economic growth tripled while he was in power. Ramos ended the Philippines' frequent power outages and brownouts improved the environment, fought corruption and reduced red tape. He was popular during the first three years of his term.

Ramos, a Methodist and the Philippines' first non-Catholic president, viewed the country's high population growth rate as an obstacle to development. In 1993, a rally of 300,000 Catholics led by Cardinal Sin took place in Manila to protest the Ramos administration's birth control policies and the public health promotion of prophylactics to limit the spread of AIDS. [Source: Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations, Thomson Gale, 2007]

Ramos's Efforts to Bring Philippines Group Together

According to Reuters: Ramos fought right-wing, leftist and Islamic rebels during his time in the military, but later held peace talks with all "enemies of the state", including rogue soldiers who attempted nearly a dozen times to unseat Aquino during her tenure. [Source: Karen Lema and Enrico Dela Cruz, Reuters, July 31, 2022]

President Ramos worked at coalition building and overcoming the divisiveness of the Aquino years. Mutinous right-wing soldiers, communist insurgents, and Muslim separatists were convinced to cease their armed activities against the government and were granted amnesty. In an act of reconciliation, Ramos allowed the remains of Ferdinand Marcos—he had died in exile in the United States in 1989—to be returned to the Philippines for burial in 1993. Efforts by supporters of Ramos to gain passage of an amendment that would allow him to run for a second term were met with large-scale protests supported by Cardinal Sin and Corazon Aquino, leading Ramos to declare he would not run again. [Source: Library of Congress *]

Shortly after his inauguration, Ramos sought a reconciliation with his former rivals from the presidential election, Imelda Marcos and Eduardo Cojuangco. In the House of Representatives, Ramos gained the position of speaker of the House for Jose de Venecia, his close political ally and secretary of the Lakas ng Edsa-National Union of Christian Democrats (Lakas-NUCD). Ramos received support from the fifty-one members of the House elected under the banner of the Lakas-NUCD alliance, which he had formed when he failed to get the nomination of the Laban Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) party. In part because of his conciliatory approach, Ramos was also able to marshal support from a substantial share of LDP members, from members of Eduardo Cojuangco's Nationalist People's Party, and from members of the Liberal Party. He was less successful in the Senate, where LDP chairman Neptali Gonzales was elected president. Ramos seemed likely to face a major challenge getting his program to stimulate economic growth and restore order to the Philippines through a divided and potentially hostile Congress. *

Philippines Economy Under Ramos

President Fidel Ramos (1992-1998) was given high marks for handling the economy. By breaking apart monopolies, liberalizing foreign investment laws and privatizing business and industries by controlled powerful families, Ramos was crediting with transforming the Philippines from a country with a history of poverty, corruption, rebellion, foreign ineptness and tax evasion into an economic powerhouse that was not yet an Asian tiger but was sometimes referred to as Asian tiger cub.

The growth rate during the Ramos years was a robust 5 percent a year and inflation was in the single digits, down from 25 percent in 1990. Under his leadership, fiber optic lines were installed, property values soared, five star hotels and condominiums were built, the stock market showed big gains, overseas workers began returning home and the former American military bases at Subic and Clark became thriving trade and industrial centers.

Oliver Teves of Associated Press wrote: “For a brief period of the 1990s, the Philippines under the presidency of Fidel Ramos registered high growth rates and was touted as the next Asian "tiger" economy. But the ingrained poverty, corruption and crime rate, and the abiding threat of another popular uprising conspire to scare away investors and drain the country of its best brains and hardest workers. [Source: Jim Gomez and Oliver Teves Associated Press, February 25, 2006 +^+]

The Philippine economy showed some improvement in early 1992, spurred by increases in agricultural production and in consumer and government spending. Budget deficits were well within IMF guidelines — P3.2 billion in the first two months. At the end of April, the treasury posted a P5.5 billion surplus as a result of higher than programmed revenue receipts, mainly from the sale of Philippine Airlines. The increased revenue permitted the early repeal of the 5 percent import surcharge, stimulating both import spending and export growth. The money supply grew more rapidly than desired, but was kept under control. Treasury bill rates fell to 17.3 percent in March 1992 from 23 percent in November 1991, and inflation was down to 9.4 percent for the first quarter of 1992, from 18.7 percent in 1991. [Source: Library of Congress]

However, the momentum in the economic gains made under his administration was briefly interrupted during the onset of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. Nevertheless, during the last year of the term, the economy managed to make a rebound since it was not severely hit by the crisis as compared to other Asian economies. He also oversaw the Philippine Centennial Independence celebrations in 1998.

How Ramos Got the Philippines Economy Going

To get the Philippines economy going, Ramos and the Philippine Congress abolished tariffs and preferential terms that enriched the rich families. He reformed the banking system and drove down interest rates. He overhauled the electricity infrastructure so that energy shortages and brown outs became a thing of the past.

During his tenure, the economy surged and poverty rates fell to 31 percent from 39 percent through his Social Reform Agenda. Ramos broke up monopolies in the transportation and communications sectors. Through special powers granted by Congress he restored the ailing electricity sector, ending debilitating 12-hour power outages that plagued the country.[Source: Karen Lema and Enrico Dela Cruz, Reuters, July 31, 2022]

Ramos’s major peace agreements with Muslim separatists, communist insurgents and military rebels, renewed investor confidence in the Philippine economy. Ramos also aggressively pushed for the deregulation of the nation's major industries and the privatization of bad government assets. As a result of his hands-on approach to the economy, the Philippines was dubbed by various internationally as Asia's Next Economic Tiger.

Foreign investment increased. Companies like Acer (a Taiwanese company) and Intel moved into the Philippines Much of the prosperity was linked to investments from Hong Kong by tycoons like Gordon Wu, who shipped their money to Manila before the reunification with China. In the early 1990s, the Philippines was regarded as an economic rival of Thailand and Malaysia now it lags far behind them.

One of the greatest threats to the Philippine economy in 1992 was the power shortage. The fall in the water level in Lake Lanao caused a 50 percent reduction in the power supply to Mindanao in December 1991, and the resumption of full power was not expected until almost the end of 1992. The power shortage in Luzon continued to be chronic. Power cuts of four to five hours per day have been common; in May they reached six hours on some days in Manila, the country's industrial hub. To help to meet this chronic shortage, the government reactivated the contract with Westinghouse Corporation to restart construction on a 620 megawatt nuclear power plant on the Bataan Peninsula that had been abandoned in 1986. This plant however was not scheduled to go on line until 1995. [Source: Library of Congress]

Progress Made By Ramos with Communist and Muslim Guerillas

Early in his administration, Ramos declared “national reconciliation” to be his highest priority. He opened dialogues with the Communist and Muslim guerillas, legalized the Communist Party and established the National Unification Commission (NUC) to prepare for negotiations with communist insurgents, Muslim separatists, and military rebels. In June 1994, President Ramos signed a general conditional amnesty law covering all rebel groups, as well as Philippine military and police personnel accused of crimes committed while fighting insurgents. In October 1995, the government signed an agreement that brought the military insurgency to an end. [Source: Countries of the World and Their Leaders Yearbook 2009, Gale, 2008]

In September 1996, a peace agreement was signed with one major Muslim insurgent group, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), using the existing Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) as a vehicle for self-government. Although Muslim unrest and violence continued into the 21st century, the 1996 peace accord was clearly progress. It led to an expansion of the autonomous region in 2001 and granted the MNLF greater independence in many of that island's provinces. However, a splinter group, the militant Moro Islamic Liberation Front, rejected the agreement and continued to resist the government. A 1996 peace agreement was signed by the Philippines government chief negotiator Manuel Yan, Nur Misuari, Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas, and Secretary General Hamid Algabid of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). Later, Misuari ran for and won the governorship of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARM) in the 9 September 1996 elections. [Source: Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed., Columbia University Press]

Ramos succeeded in shrinking the number of Maoist-led guerrillas to more than 5,400 rebels from a high of 25,000 in early 1986. However, they remained active. In January 1996, Philippine police uncovered a plot by Muslim terrorists to assassinate Pope John Paul II during his visit to Manila that month. Muslim rebels in Mindanao raided the town of Ipil in April 1996, killing 57 people and burning the business district. The rebels also took part in the resurgence of kidnappings and bank robberies in Manila and Mindanao. More than 100 kidnappings were reported in 1996, many in which police officers were also suspected.

The New People's Army (NPA) was last major communist insurgency in Asia. Ramos’s government’s peace overtures, along with the passage of the 1992 Anti-Subversion Law, signaled a shift toward reconciliation and political accommodation. At the same time, internal divisions within the New People's Army (NPA) in 1993 led to a significant split in its ranks, creating a period of reduced armed activity as the movement grappled with leadership disputes and ideological disagreements. Despite this temporary lull, the NPA resumed intermittent armed operations throughout the 1990s. One breakaway faction, the Revolutionary Proletarian Army, emerged from the split and carried out its own campaigns of violence. During this period, the insurgency also drew criticism for increasingly involving children in its activities, both as combatants and in supporting roles, raising serious human rights concerns. [Source: Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations, Thomson Gale, 2007]

Ramos After His Presidency

Ramos’s popularity rating plummeted to 4 percent (Marcos' was 30 percent when he fled) after the 1995 election when he announced belt-tightening reforms and tax hikes. When protestors took to the streets they claimed that Fidel "Vampire" Ramos was "sucking the country dry." To this Ramos said, "You want progress? Then pay the right amount of taxes."

According to the Philippines constitution Ramos had to step down in 1998. When he began hinting that he wanted to change the constitution so he can run again for president in 1998, a half million people took to the streets in September 1997 to show their disapproval. By that time Filipinos liked Ramos and appreciated what he did for the Philippines but they didn't want a repeat of Marcos years. The demonstration was the largest since the People Power demonstrations on 1986 that ousted Marcos.

Ramos was prevented from amending the Constitution to allow him to serve two terms by an effort spearheaded by Cory Aquino and Cardinal Sin. Ramos told the Los Angeles Times near the end of his term, "I have denied this many times. I am ready to go at the end of my term on June 13, 1998."

In January 2001, Ramos was instrumental in the success of the so-called second EDSA Revolution that deposed the properly elected Philippine president Joseph Estrada and placed then-Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the presidential seat.

Ramos died in July 2002 at the age 94. "Our family shares the Filipino people's grief on this sad day. We did not only lose a good leader but also a member of the family," recently elected President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, said in a statement."The legacy of his presidency will always be cherished and will be forever enshrined in the hearts of our grateful nation." [Source: Karen Lema and Enrico Dela Cruz, Reuters, July 31, 2022]

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, Fidel V. Ramos Presidential Library

Text Sources: “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 5: East/Southeast Asia:” edited by Paul Hockings, 1993; National Geographic, Live Science, Philippines Department of Tourism, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Natural History magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Encyclopedia.com, Times of London, Library of Congress, The Conversation, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Google AI, Wikipedia, The Guardian and various websites, books and other publications.

Last updated February 2026