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MANILA, Philippines — Former Philippine President Fidel Valdez Ramos, a U.S.-trained ex-general who saw action in the Korean and Vietnam wars and played a key role in a 1986 pro-democracy uprising that ousted a dictator, has died. He was 94.
Ramos’s family announced his death with profound sadness but did not provide other details in a brief statement that asked for privacy.
One of his longtime aides, Norman Legaspi, said Ramos had been in and out of the hospital in recent years due to a heart condition and had suffered from dementia.
Some of Ramos’s relatives were with him when he died on Sunday at the Makati Medical Center in metropolitan Manila, Legaspi said.
“He was an icon. We lost a hero and I lost a father,” said Legaspi, a retired Philippine air force official, who served as a close staff to Ramos in and out of government for about 15 years.
Read more: Bongbong Marcos Looks Set to Be the Next Philippine President. A Short History of His Family’s Rise, Fall, and Rise Again
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. condoled with the family of Ramos in a Facebook post. “We did not only lose a good leader but also a member of the family,” he said.
The newly elected president is the namesake son of the former Philippine dictator, whose 1986 ouster came after Ramos, then a top official of the Philippine Constabulary, and defense chief Juan Ponce Enrile withdrew their support in defections that sparked massive army-backed protests.
Ramos was the late dictator’s second cousin, and in 1972 had helped him implement martial law during which thousands of people were incarcerated, tortured and became victims of extrajudicial killings and disappearances.
The Department of National Defense, which was once led by…
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Source : time
