General trained in the United States, he contributed to the fall of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos and the election of Cory Aquino, which he succeeded at the head of the Philippines in 1992. He died on July 31, at the ‘Age of 94 years.
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This career soldier, with a big cigar screwed between the teeth, had remained the last hero of the People Power (“the power to the people”) who carried Corazon (“Cory”) aquino in power in February 1986. Same S ‘ He then defended himself, the general was quickly considered as a potential successor of the president. He actually became it from 1992 to 1998. He died Sunday July 31, at the age of 94.
From November 1988, General Fidel Ramos had become the most powerful figure of the Aquino government after the president. Minister of Defense, he also chaired the General Military Council, which made him a kind of assistant commander of the armies, having, like the president, of the power to mobilize the troops.
Born March 18, 1928 in the province of Pangasinan, in the west of Luçon, the largest island of the Philippines, Fidel Ramos, who entered the Military Academy in 1947, was later sent to that of West Point , in the USA. He made his start during the Korean War (1950-1953) then, during the 1960s, he fought in Vietnam (especially during the Têt offensive, in 1968). He obtained his grade of general in 1971.
a man of compromise
His rallying to Cory Aquino – in the company of Juan Ponce Enrile, then Minister of Defense – in the aftermath of the rigged elections of February 1986, was the event which determined the fall of Ferdinand Marcos. Until then faithful to Marcos, the general commanded the gendarmerie. In power, Cory Aquino appointed him chief of staff.
sharp by its calm and its little expansive character in a country where theatrical attitudes are in order (a line that he perhaps held from his Protestant education), General Ramos, faithful to the president, No less became a kind of referee within the ruling team, and Cory Aquino’s political survival largely depended on his loyalty.
Man of compromise, Fidel Ramos lost part of the confidence of young rebel officers of the Reform Movement of the Armed Forces who had led to the fall of Marcos. However, he avoided cutting himself from these by being magnanimous towards putschists (the Aquino government was the victim of six coup attempts). A tolerance which was at the origin of the resignation, in January 1988, of the Minister of Defense who had succeeded Juan Ponce Enrile, General Rafael Ileto.
The first Protestant president of the country
Having in turn Minister of Defense, General Ramos took the initiative, in December 1989, to ask the United States air coverage, while the deadliest coup attempt against M me Aquino was likely to succeed. After the failure of the coup, it was nonetheless criticized for not having been able to warn it despite the warning signs.
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