Former President of the Philippines Fidel V. Ramos was interviewed by reporter Lynda Jumilla in October 2016. This interview gave us a good idea of the thoughts of this highly-respected man many years after his presidency in 1992-1998.
At the age of 88, Mr. Ramos remains active in social affairs, and continues to write books and newspaper columns dealing with governance and related topics. He continues to touch base and shares his wisdom and experience with his friends, members of his staff, and former Cabinet officials.
Those who served the Philippine government during his presidency hold him in high regard, and frequently visit with him in his private office in Makati City.
FVR, as he is known to many Filipinos, made a strong emphasis on the aspect of governance during the interview. A president of the Philippines, in his view, should be primarily concerned with solutions to the many issues and problems of the country that prevent the majority of our people from attaining fruitful and happy lives.
We know that this development goal cannot be reached by focusing only on a few, highly- selected areas of concern. Government must address all issues relevant to the overall development of the country.
An example may be cited such as the rapidly- rising human population of the Philippines. This basic problem has several implications. One of them is the food requirements of a population that tends to exceed the capacity of our natural environments to supply.
Our land and marine resources are becoming insufficient to support the basic food needs of our more than the current 104 million people. Appropriate interventions are needed by making our land and seas more productive, and by managing our population, as our ASEAN neighbour Thailand has shown. (In the early 1990s, the Philippines and Thailand had about the same population; now the Philippines has 104 million people, and Thailand has about 60 million; the Thai baht was equal to one peso in the 1990s; now the baht is P1.30.)
Another major point mentioned by FVR in the interview is that our country should keep its long-time friends, not abandon them, through some kind of exclusion policy.
Many Filipinos have benefited from our international friends. A very good example is the areas of research and education, where collaboration among people from various nations facilitated the advancement of knowledge.
In general, networking and collaboration brought about mutual understanding and friendship among peoples of various creeds, cultures, and religions.
Still another of area is foreign policy, which FVR describes as “inter-dependent” rather than “independent” foreign policy.
Actually, there is no such thing as fully-independent policy. Countries tend to depend on other countries to varying extent, and both countries involved reap mutual benefits from such a relationship. This is what we see in many actual situations.
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Author’s email: suakcrem@yahoo.com
