President Fidel Valdez Ramos – The One President I Would Have Supported If He Declared Another Martial Law, That Time To Modernize Philippine Economy!

We are talking here of heroes in the field and on paper, both Ilocanos like me – Ferdinand Edralin Marcos (FM) from Ilocos Norte was a Hero on Paper and Fidel Valdez Ramos (FVR) from Pangasinan was a Hero in the Field. Now, FM was a good President, but ambition got the better of him; FVR was a good President too, but ambition failed him. (image from YouTube.com)

FM held on to his ambition of power;
FVR could have en-Visioned a New Philippines: like Nasyon nga Naraniag ken Umili nga Naragsak (Bright Country and Happy People). FM had the first in his plan; he stopped short of the second. He may have been thinking outside himself and his family, but not thinking of Filipinos achieving for themselves.

And elsewhere, I myself was only thinking of my Ilocano family!

So, as a form of saying goodbye to my townmate President, who died yesterday, July 31, I have written this article, declaring:

Mr Ramos, you could have done more and better after Mr Marcos!

I’m talking now of Visionary Leadership.

What the Philippines needs today is a Blueprint for Archipelagic Development (BAD). (BAD would have been good for FM.)

If I have learned anything from former PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, who played the unmatchable & stellar role as Director General who brought the nternational Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) from last place to first place in the achievement list of members of the international CGIAR Group, it’s this:

·      You need Vision (institutional ambition)

·      Your Mission will bring you to the achievement of that Vision.

·      Your Vision & Mission will bring you to your desired Destination.

So!

What Ferdinand “BBM” Marcos Jr needs to do is demand that his Secretary of Agriculture come up with a blueprint for a New Philippine Agriculture – Agrikulturang Pataba ng Pilipinas! (Agpataba!)

Fertilize the soul of this country, not simply the soil!

Of course, you will need a new and experienced and determined and visionary Secretary of Agriculture to do that: my candidate is “old” William Dar, from Ilocos Sur. BBM, of course you know him – Dar was the one whom you unceremoniously replaced when you became PH President. Please correct your mistake now!

What did Mr Dar say then?

"Ang legacy po natin ay may direksyon ang sektor ng agrikultura (Our legacy is that the agriculture sector has direction), ‘yung (the) thinking, it led to a new food security development framework. There was the global summit of the food systems approach so we made our own version of that, sinama na natin ito lahat sa (we rolled everything into the) OneDA Reform Agenda. That's a legacy. We have a direction for the future. It will be the solid foundations of the sector."

What my townmate and PH President FVR had not seen, and what current President BBM has not grasped, is that the Philippines needs an enriching mind managing the whole agriculture of the nation. Total agriculture!@517