President Ramos travels and toils

President Ramos travels and toils

By Uday Khandeparkar

MANILA (Reuter): It is Manila's mellowest hour. At 5 a.m. the streets are deserted except for a few cruising cab drivers and members of President Fidel Ramos' cabinet.

The ministers are heading for yet another out-of-town cabinet meeting.

This time the state machinery is moving to the Cordilleras, the mountain province in the northern island of Luzon.

It is Ramos' way of taking the government to the people. Since he became president in 1992, he has held dozens of such meetings outside the capital, Manila.

The regional cabinet meetings, at which reporters are reluctant guests because it means a back-breaking day of traveling to remote places and attending scores of public functions, have built Ramos' image as the indefatigable president.

"To work with the president, you have to be physically fit," says Press Secretary Hector Villenueva.

While most Manilans are still in bed, the 69-year-old president and his ministers clamber into helicopters and head for Bokod in Benguet province, a fertile valley isolated from the rest of the country since a 1990 earthquake destroyed the only bridge.

Ninety minutes later, the helicopters raise a dust storm as they land in Bokod which has waken up early to see the guests.

As the villagers crane their necks to catch a glimpse of the government, Ramos and his officials stride to a make-shift stage where a new bridge is to be inaugurated.

"This is not just a bridge. It is a bridge to your future," says Ramos to the cheering crowd.

When Ramos became president, he inherited an economy run to the ground by 20 years of misrule by dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Ramos turned the economy around, with gross national product growing by 6.94 percent last year.

But the former general, who won the presidential nomination from predecessor Cory Aquino for defending her during a series of coups, takes as much pride in his social reform program.

The program includes redistribution of land to the poorest and ensuring the benefits of growth filter down.

Constitution

Despite his achievements, Ramos has been severely criticized for attempts by his aides to amend the constitution so he can run for a second term next year.

The Philippines' new constitution, written after Marcos was toppled, restricts a president to a single six-year term.

After efforts early this year to amend the constitution were stymied by a court ruling, senior members of the ruling Lakas party as well as Ramos' cabinet began angling for the job.

The seven aspirants, who include the country's defense and finance secretaries, are all hoping they will win Ramos' endorsement for the presidency.

This has meant that journalists and politicians hang on to every word Ramos says to seek indication of whom he might anoint.

"Remember how to spell De Villa," Ramos tells his audience in Bokod.

It sounds like a definite pitch for defense secretary Renato de Villa. The trouble is Ramos earlier said much the same about finance secretary Roberto de Ocampo and house speaker Jose de Venecia.

Asked if this is indication De Villa could be the chosen one, one minister said: "This is an indication of Ramos' sense of humor."

De Villa's popularity rating is low and his slowness in decision-making has earned him the nickname of "Mr Wait a Minute".

So who is the candidate of Ramos' choice?

The choice is Ramos himself because that is what the people are clamoring for, says another minister.

Ramos says this is his one and only term and that on June 30, 1998, a new president will be in Malacanang palace.

The speculation over Ramos' future plans persist but meanwhile he drives everyone in a grueling grind. He himself leads the pack, working seven days a week, 365 days of the year.

Several events later, the government heads for the helicopters but by then the sun has gone down and flying out of the fog-bound Cordillera mountains is dangerous.

So they march into a bus for a seven-hour drive back to Manila. Now it is well past midnight and again the president's men are in the company of cruising cab drivers, home-bound bartenders and stray dogs strutting the streets without fear.

Manila has long since gone to bed.