How the De Venecias Engr. the Pres. Victory of Ramos

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

IT HAD been more than three years that I did not visit the abode of five-time Speaker Joe de Venecia at the coastal village of Bonuan Binloc in Dagupan City when his Missus’ woman Friday Gypsy Baldovino told me to be there at 2 P.m last Saturday.

Speaker Joe  "JDV" de Venecia receives U.S President and Mrs. George Bush at the House of Representatives where President Bush honored the invitation of JDV for Bush to address a joint session of the Philippines Congress. (Global Filipino) 

Upon stepping in at the wide veranda I saw the de Venecias’ matriarch exchanging pleasantries at a round table with several news hens. I went to her where we exchanged notes. Manay Gina - a former congresswoman -- is running for the seat to be vacated by her last term (nine years) son’s Pangasinan 4^th District Rep. Christopher.

“Binabasa ko lately iyong binigay pa ni Speaker na libro (Global Filipino (404 pages authorized biography of Jose de Venecia, Jr. the visionary five-time Speaker of the Philippines by Brett M. Decker), he was responsible pala sa by the skin of the teeth victory of Tabako (Fidel V. Ramos) in the presidential election. I read there how during the early stage of the campaign (for the May 1992 election), Ramos, the Speaker, and others secretly left in a private jet the Philippines for Switzerland and bound for Libya,” I told Manay while sipping the Spanish cortado coffee her staff gave to me after I requested it instead of acquiescing to her pleading to partake the sumptuous food (that included “lechon”) she prepared for the members of the Fourth Estate that came earlier for the “Kamustahan with the media”.

“Kasama ako doon!” she exclaimed to me on that secret Libya’s trip.

“O’, e di totoo iyong sinabi ni Decker na pagdating sa Tripoli, Libya, sumakay kayo uli ng isang eroplano para makarating sa Sirte kung saan nag-aantay si Qaddafi.

“Oo,” she retorted.

Unknown to many Filipinos, that covert trip in that country in the Maghreb region of North Africa  and meeting with Libya's Strongman Moamar Qadaffi so he could intercede for the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) Chieftain Nur Missuri to conclude a peace talk with the government to end the internecine combats. That encounter was brainchild by the prescient Speaker Joe as the silver bullet for a Ramos presidential victory.

That victory gifted the huge Pangasinan’s province with a President from Asingan town and a House Speaker from Dagupan City who collaborated in passing vaunted laws on Comprehensive Tax Reform Program, Build Operate Transfer, Special Economic Zones, Bank Liberalization, and others.

“Pati iyong BGC (Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City) si Speaker din nag initiate na mabenta ang part ng Villamor (Air Base),” my son Z.J who was with Migz Trinidad - his college classmate at Centrol Escolar University in Makati -- butted in. The duo is the P.R writers of the de Venecias.

Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qadaffi meets in 1992 with then Congressman Jose de Venecia and former Defense Secretary Fidel V. Ramos in Sirte, Libya a few months before Ramos's presidential victory (Global Filipino).

Manay was thankful that Speaker Martin Romualdez – of all the House Speakers that succeeded her hubby – repaid the feats of the latter by building and opening January this year the first Jose de Venecia Jr. Building and Museum at the Batasang Pambansa Complex in the House of Representatives in Quezon City.

They Secretly Left for Europe and Libya

Let’s go back why the Speaker, Ramos, Manay, and entourage went to Libya.

“In February 1992 Ramos’s ranking in opinion polls worried his political strategists. He was either in second or in third place – within distance of pacesetting Miriam Defensor Santiago. A ninety-day campaign for the presidency was grueling. Now de Venecia thought that Ramos had to try ‘something dramatic” to build momentum and win over the undecided segment of the electorate,” wrote by Decker who was the editor for the Wall Street Journal, editorial page editor for the Washington Times, and has written for publications ranging from the New York Times and USA Today to National Review and the American Spectator.

A week into the campaign, Ramos – a four –star general and a former Defense Secretary of President Corazon Aquino – abruptly left the hustings without any explanation and flew out of Manila.  The journey in Zurich, Switzerland was shrouded in secrecy. He was with de Venecia and spouse Gina, Rudy Lar, specialist on Libyan affairs, and Apolinario Lozada, Jr., a young foreign service officer to meet the top brass of the Brussel-based Christian Democrat International (CDI). Lakas NUCD was affiliated with CDI, and it was seeking the counsel of one of Europe’s biggest alliances of centrist political parties.

“After arriving in Zurich, there was not time for a respite, though, the party boarded a light chartered plane parked on the tarmac, waiting for the Filipinos. Its destination was Tripoli, Libya’s famed capital,” Decker wrote.

Anyone familiar with the Muslim insurrection in Mindanao -- second biggest island of the Philippines which I grew up and lived in a Cotabato town for 15 years -- knew Tripoli and the Strongman who ruled Libya. That country had been a sanctuary for Filipino Muslim separatists fighting to create a Bangsa Moro republic in Mindanao.

“The fountainhead of the rebellion, spiritually and materially, was Moamar Qaddafi, Libya’s strongman and one of the most influential voices in the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). The Philippines armed forces under two presidents tried but failed to end the rebellion. The war, already on its third decade, had exacted a heavy price. Now peace had to be secured through other means”.

Growing up with a military father, I saw at military camps seized FAL (Fusil Automatique Léger in French) Light Automatic Rifles made by Belgium and donated by Qaddafi to Moros there. My Muslim high school classmates in the town of M’lang proudly called it FAL Jet that could shame the American M-16s bought by the Philippines military from the United States because of its 7.62 mm bullet.

“In this context, Ramos’s journey to Libya took on significance. Although not yet president, he, together with de Venecia, was undertaking a unique mission for peace. Peace was more than an election issue, de Venecia mused; it was at the heart of uniting a nation fractured by decades of internecine war. War was holding back economic development. The Philippines was the only nation in Asia fighting insurgencies on three fronts – the separatists in Mindanao supported militarily by Qaddafi, the Communist New People’s Army and the military reformist segment. Later there would be a fourth murderous Muslim insurgency: the terrorist Abu Sayyaf, which thrived on kidnapping and ransom, largely operating in the offshore islands of Basilan and Sulu. Ramos, in war the soldier’s soldier, was not soldiering for peace. Peace was to be a defining goal of his presidency,” the British writer penned.

U.S First Lady Hillary Clinton in Manila with Gina, Joe, President Ramos, and President Bill Clinton before she (Hillary) addressed the 12,000 Filipino women leaders and praised Gina de Venecia's "Haven" project. The "Haven for Women", with a nationwide branches, has already treated 17,000 abused women; the "Haven for the Children" is taking care of abandoned drug-dependent street children of Metro Manila; the "Haven for the Elderly," for senior citizens neglected by their families, is completing its transfer to the hills of Rizal; and the "Haven for Mothers," who have lost their children (Global Filipino).  

As the plane hurtled toward Tripoli, de Venecia thought that Ramos presidential run – a child of historical necessity – was a leap of faith, just like this journey. Landing in Tripoli, the Filipinos quickly drove out of the runway and into another airstrip, where a Libyan government plane was now preparing to take off with them, accompanied by a Libyan Air Force's General, for the short flight to Sirte, Qaddafi’s hometown on the North African Mediterranean coast, Decker narrated.

                              Winning the Hearts and Minds of the Moros

As Ramos and de Venecia explained carefully the Mindanao peace plan, Qaddafi grew attentive.  Misuari, however, was hostile to even a preliminary cease-fire and in later statements would declare that Muslim secession remained the MNLF’s main goal. The Muslims could not forget how the government of President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. bamboozled the Tripoli Agreement, signed in 1976 that should give the Muslims autonomous administrative areas for their communities, including an autonomous government, a judicial system for Sharia law, and special security forces. 

“The Ramos-de Venecia mission ran into a dead end; there would be no dramatic breakthrough to boost Ramos in the poll ratings, nothing to merit bolds news headlines.  Qaddafi promised them however to take up the peace proposal with Misuari, but the situation for the immediate moment seemed hopeless”.

With Qaddafi's promise, Lakas leaders gained a platform and the confidence to persuade Muslims in Mindanao to support Ramos's candidacy. The meeting with the Libyan strongman was quietly leaked to the Muslim leaders, most of whom were admirers of Qaddafi and now supportive of Ramos. Muslim Mindanao would eventually go for Ramos, the margin he built there big enough to make the difference in his slim victory.

On that presidential derby Ramos, Santiago, and Danding Cojuangco – who got the endorsement of the bloc voting Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) – garnered 5,342,521 (23.58%), 4,468,173 (19.72%), 4,116,376 (18.17%) votes, respectively. Their other opponents were Speaker Ramon V. Mitra, Marcos’ widow Imelda, and Jovito Salonga who trailed them.

Without the invitation of Gypsy Baldovino, I would not know that Manay Gina was on that historic trip in Sirte, Libya that resulted for the narrow 874, 348 (of the total 21.9 million votes) victory of the late President Ramos – who loved to read my political columns whenever he was in Pangasinan. He asked for my imprimatur then to include my amusing op-ed article’s FVR Irks by Benguet's Guv Long Speech in one of his authored books.

I digressed son of a gun! My apology.

READ MY OTHER BLOG:

It’s the U.S not the Colombians that destroyed Escobar

MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

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I am a twenty years seasoned Op-Ed Political Writer in various newspapers and Blogger exposing government corruptions, public officials idiocy and hypocrisies, and analyzing local and international issues. I have a master’s degree in Public Administration and professional government eligibility. I taught for a decade Political Science and Economics in universities in Metro Manila and cities of Urdaneta, Pangasinan and Dagupan. Follow me on Twitter @totoMortz or email me at totomortz@yahoo.com.