ERASTO R. BATONGMALAQUE FOUNDATION

  Fidel V. Ramos, the 12th president of the Philippines (1992–1998), is remembered for steadfastly promoting the principles of people empowerment and global competitiveness. In 1993, he put an end to the power crisis that crippled Filipino homes and industries for two years. He pursued and converged programs to fight poverty through Congress's enactment of 229 structural/reform laws during his term.

​

  The Philippine economy recovered dramatically during the years 1993–1997. Ramos implemented a comprehensive Social Reform Agenda (SRA) that addressed the long-standing problem of poverty: jobs and livelihood, health, education and skills training, housing, environmental protection, children and the youth, the elderly and the handicapped, agrarian reform, and access to equal opportunity. The country's Gross National Product (GNP) averaged 5 percent annually. The average income of the Filipino family grew larger during his administration than in the preceding two decades. He pushed for the deregulation of key industries and the liberalization of the economy.

 

  He encouraged the privatization of public entities, including the modernization of public infrastructure through an expanded Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) law. While communist insurgency dwindled to historic lows, he achieved a peace agreement with military rebels and the secessionist Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) for which he won the Philippines the coveted 1997 UNESCO Peace Award—the first for Asians. FVR is known as the "centennial" president, having planned and supervised the 100th anniversary of the country's declaration of independence from Spain on June 12, 1998.