Philippines’ Fidel Ramos sought Beijing ties but also showed South China Sea defiance

Ramos, who died on Sunday at the age of 94, started a programme to modernise his country’s armed forces to better protect territories in disputed region while pursuing one-China policy

During and after his tenure, former Philippine president’s public position on China shifted between acceptance and defiance

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Philippine President Fidel Ramos during the opening of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Ministers’ Meeting in Manila in 1996. File photo: AFP

Published: 8:30am, 2 Aug 2022

Fidel V. Ramos, the Philippines’ 12th president who died on Sunday of Covid-19 complications at the age of 94, pursued a one-China policy during his tenure but also defied Beijing by starting a programme to modernise his country’s armed forces to better protect its territories in the disputed South China Sea.

When Ramos went on his only state visit to China in 1993, he reiterated the country’s one-China policy even though it was his late diplomat father Narciso who had opened an embassy in Taipei in 1965 and served as its ambassador till 1968.

The one-China policy was put in place by his second cousin, dictator Ferdinand Marcos Snr, in 1975 to stop the flow of arms and funds from China to local communist rebels.

President Corazon Aquino, who replaced Marcos Snr in 1987, continued the one-China policy and so did Ramos, when he said in Beijing in 1993: “We recognise the People’s Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China and acknowledge the position of all Chinese, that there is only one China …”.

Two years later, however, relations soured as Ramos accused Beijing of militarising Mischief Reef which was within the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Among all Philippine presidents, Ramos was well-placed to call on the United States for help, but a series of unfortunate events prevented that. Ramos was one of the few Filipino graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point, fighting alongside American soldiers in the Korean war.

By the time he became president, however, the US had abandoned its army bases in the Philippines – even pulling out toilet bowls in the barracks – after the Philippine Senate refused to extend American presence over a disagreement on “rent”.