Glimpses Of Greatness

The Ghost Of Promises Past. In reference to our politicians' promises, in which the word promise has a double meaning: a vow made yesterday and a vision made for tomorrow. Up and down, our present politicians have lots of promises but so far have not delivered! The ghost of former Senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani haunts me, and I am glad. I've always been afraid of seeing a ghost, but not of this one – she makes me braver than I thought I could be! On her advice, this time, bravery is the soul of wit. Are you wit me? "Wit" refers to "intelligent playfulness" as well as "the natural ability to perceive and understand" ( American Heritage Dictionary ). Pity the living soul that is without wit! And we have a multitude among our Filipino politicians. Is Shahani gone? Only physically. Her ghost should haunt us now! (The original of the image above is a favorite of her daughter Lila; I have painterized it, which is a favorite trick of mine.) ...

This photo taken 06 August 2016 is of the members of the Nagkaisa Multi-Purpose Cooperative meeting in the inner room at the ground floor of the 2-story Danggay House, the one that Senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani built in 1996 in her hometown of Asingan in Pangasinan, along with the Danggay Foundation. At the back, the 3 gentlemen seated are, from left, Patrocinio Sapigao, Nagkaisa Board member; Roger Daranciang, Nagkaisa Chair; and Lito Sales, Nagkaisa General Manager. You can't see me, another Board Member, as I am in front of the camera. As you can imagine, Danggay House has high ceilings in both 1st and 2nd floors, built  materiales fuertes , with strong & well-built foundations and materials. When Shahani built something, she meant it to last. Not to any other group, Shahani had given us Nagkaisa the keys to Danggay House on 12 April 2013, after she discerned that we were after the public good and could be trusted. Like begets like. She was the Chair of Dangga...

By Melba Padilla Maggay Reprinted from  http://opinion.inquirer.net/102837/gift-feeling-leticia-ramos-shahani Much has been said about the stellar career of the late former senator Leticia Ramos Shahani. What stands out in the narratives is the rare capacity to wed character to competence, political savvy to passion and principle. There are very few of her kind. Most, whether men or women, turn out to be despots or pliable politicians susceptible to unholy influence. She was, from every possible angle, a stateswoman. Like most women who are able to shoulder their way to power, there was a certain glint of steel in her character. A thoroughgoing professional, she had a no-nonsense approach to getting things done, burrowing her way through the tortuous labyrinths of bureaucracy and coming out of it with landmark legislation on women's rights, the promotion of culture and the arts, and other such initiatives that are now institutions. She had a punctilious probity that ...

Alfred A Yuson The Philippine StarMarch 27, 2017 - 12:00am http://www.philstar.com/arts-and-culture/2017/03/27/1684806/farewell-manang-letty We join our good friend and fellow writer Lila Shahani, her siblings Ranjit and Chanda, her uncle, former president Fidel V. Ramos, and the rest of our countrymen in mourning the demise of former Senator Leticia Ramos Shahani. Numerous paeans have already expressed a nation's gratitude and established the worth of her patriotism throughout an extended career as a public servant: as a diplomat, an intellectual and humanist whose advocacies included education, culture, and gender equality, among others, and as a Senator of the Republic for 11 years. We enjoyed best the warm recollections of Sylvia Muñoz-Ordoñez and Howie Severino, both of whom painted her as a fine lady of incalculable substance and graciousness, even as her intellectual energy manifested itself in public forums and numerous initiatives. Sylvia recalled that when...

MANILA, Philippines – Decades ago, diplomat Leticia Ramos-Shahani received a "kilometric message" from her boss, then Philippine foreign secretary Carlos P. Romulo, reprimanding her for a risk she took. Without consulting Romulo because she was pressed for time, Shahani brought to the United Nations (UN) a working draft of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). This was in 1973. Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979, CEDAW would later become the international bill of rights for women. Shahani – who died on March 20 after a bout with colon cancer – recounted her role in CEDAW through an interview with Anna Marie C. Santos and Irish Kay L. Kalaw for the book Frontlines of Diplomacy edited by Ambassador J. Eduardo Malaya. Shahani explained that initially, said no government wanted to prepare a working draft for CEDAW "because it would really commit one's government into policies on education, lab...

Melito Salazar Jr Reprinted from Manila Bulletin http://news.mb.com.ph/2017/03/26/a-lady-of-substance/ Last weekend we paid our respects to former Senator Leticia Ramos Shahani an advocate for the best for the Filipino and the Philippine nation. I first met Senator Shahani when, as the director of the University of the Philippines Institute for Small Scale Industries (UPISSI), we assisted her in the conceptualization and drafting of the Magna Carta for Small Enterprises (RA 6977) which she authored in the Senate and then Congressman Gary Teves authored in the House. I found Senator Shahani very conversant with the situation of the small and medium entrepreneurs as well as down-to-earth and with a very common-sense approach in creating the legislation that would provide a nurturing environment for the small businessmen. While I was head of UPISSI, the country’s pioneer institution in SME and entrepreneurship development, I became her student in navigating the legislative mill ...

Paterno Esmaquel II 26 March 2017 http://www.rappler.com/nation/164907-leticia-ramos-shahani-west-philippine-sea-maritime-power MANILA, Philippines – "We have to defend this land." In one of her last public appearances, the late Leticia Ramos-Shahani urged Filipinos in a forum on October 26, 2016, to "defend our coastlines." Shahani died on Monday, March 20, at the age of 87 after suffering from colon cancer. She is the sister of former president Fidel V Ramos. She is also the daughter of former Philippine foreign secretary Narciso Ramos, a founding father of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. (READ: Leticia Ramos Shahani: The woman who competed with the best) "We will always invite invaders," she explained in a media forum, citing the country's geography that has made it attractive. The former diplomat and senator, in any case, described the Philippines as a future maritime power. "We are a maritime power, ...

Published 26 March 2017 http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/883824/leticia-ramos-shahani-the-accidental-politician "A politician by accident… who won on luck and auspicious timing," was how former Sen. Leticia Ramos-Shahani described herself in a speech at Miriam College's Eminent Women in Politics Lecture Series in 2007. "I wanted to be a teacher," added the former foreign undersecretary, who died of colon cancer on March 20. She was 87. She explained: "My entry into politics was unplanned. I returned to Manila in late 1985, while with the United Nations (UN), because my father (former Foreign Secretary Narciso Ramos) fell very ill… "When I went to our hometown in Asingan, Pangasinan, to register to vote for the snap elections, I was anxiously asked by the local YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association) whom I was supporting for President. I simply and honestly said: 'I am for change; I am for Cory who can bring about that chang...

I'm reading Lila Shahani's "Eulogy For Mom" that she published on Facebook today, Saturday, 25 March 2017, all 2,300 words of it. I'm now going to use the initials LRS to refer to the late former Senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani, because "LRS" is reachable and yet unreachable, familiar and yet unfamiliar, as LRS was in real life. The daughter will tell you that! LRS was widowed at a young age – I have always wondered why the husband never showed up in prominent pictures – overshadowed by the wife? Now I have the answer. When her mother was diagnosed with colon cancer about 3 years ago, Lila moved in with her. Lila says, "Retired from public service but not from working for the public good, she had plunged whole-heartedly into her new task: farming." She was into organic farming, and wanted to learn more and teach more. Actually, I know that farming was not new to her by then. For Asingan, her hometown, which is also my own, year...

From the Philippines to the World: Leticia Ramos-Shahani Ola Almgren, resident coordinator, United Nations in the Philippines http://interaksyon.com/article/138006/from-the-philippines-to-the-world-leticia-ramos-shahani March 25, 2017 7:48 AM InterAksyon.com The full text of the eulogy delivered by Ola Almgren, UN resident coordinator in the Philippines, in honor of the late former Senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani. In late August 1995, I was on a flight from London to Beijing.  Beijing wasn't my final destination - I was traveling for the United Nations to Pyongyang to participate in an assessment of humanitarian needs following floods that had hit DPR Korea. As I settled down in my seat, I couldn't help but notice that there was something different with the cabin compared to the previous time I had travelled to China, about a year earlier. This time, the gender balance in the cabin was definitively in the favor of the female sex and many passengers seemed con...