Life after the presidency

From the 26th floor office of the Ramos Peace and Development Foundation Inc. in Makati, Fidel Valdez Ramos has a panoramic view of the Makati skyline. On a clear day the former president can see all the way to Manila Bay.

He likes pointing out to guests the Makati high-rises – existing ones and new projects under construction – surrounded by humble abodes of plywood and rusty GI sheet roofing.

From his office, he says, you can see the chronic problems of the Philippines: the infrastructure gap, income gap, health and housing gap, the education gap. But the biggest problem, he says, is “tang-gap” (literally, to accept).

When he sees his guests getting the punch line, he then points to a vacant lot that he says is the fruit of accepting bribes.

At 86, FVR doesn’t need stem cells; his sense of humor must be keeping him young. Guests at his office get a welcome drink of what he calls “sexy coffee” – a concoction of San Mig 3-in-1 topped with virgin coconut oil, accompanied by clippings of an article saying that VCO works like Viagra.

If you can get the image of oil floating in your coffee out of the way and have a sip, the concoction actually tastes and smells good, and it does have a pick-me-up effect – although isn’t that what caffeine is supposed to do?

You won’t need a caffeine fix when FVR entertains you, although I needed antihistamine for an allergic reaction to the dust wafting from a mountain of books, magazines and documents stacked in almost all the rooms in the foundation’s office at the Export Bank Plaza.

Most of the books are compilations of articles written by FVR and speeches he delivered since his days in government and in engagements overseas upon his retirement.

There’s life after the presidency, Corazon Aquino famously said when she was marching in the streets to oppose the first initiative to amend the Constitution, which would have allowed FVR to seek reelection.

What would she have said, if she had survived cancer, now that her only son is himself interested in amending the Charter so he can have six more years in power?

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If political Charter change or Cha-cha pushes through and P-Noy is allowed to seek reelection, the ban will also be lifted for other ex-presidents: Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Joseph Estrada and, yes, FVR.

I asked FVR last week when some of us from The STAR visited his office if he would run in case the constitutional ban is lifted.

He skirted the question and instead told us that at the height of street protests against the signature campaign for Cha-cha during his presidency, he had returned from an overseas trip to reassure the nation that elections would be held as scheduled in 1998, he would not declare martial law to perpetuate himself in power, and he would return to being a private citizen, “which is the highest position in the land.”

The reason given by those pushing President Aquino to seek a second term is that he still has to continue the reforms he started. FVR started a lot of reforms particularly on economic liberalization. They’re all a work in progress.

I don’t think reforms in this country will be finished in my lifetime, or even in the lifetime of my great-grandnephews and great-grandnieces. You can tell when a president has been in power too long and is enjoying it to an obscene extent when he starts believing that only he can finish what he started – or that he can actually finish what he started.

As The New York Times wrote in a recent editorial, there will always be unfinished business.

What people are reading in the revival of political Cha-cha, which was started by Liberal Party president-on-leave Mar Roxas, is a wish for continuity in power not necessarily of P-Noy but the LP.

Several non-LP people close to P-Noy say he’s ready to step down as scheduled but wants to help his party hold on to members who are considering jumping ship. For the 2016 campaign, the LP also needs to raise contributions, which are coming in trickles because of the weakness of Roxas in the surveys.

From the example of his mother, P-Noy surely understands that there is life after the presidency.

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Upon her retirement, Cory Aquino campaigned against Cha-cha, painted mostly flowers and helped in projects for empowering marginalized women.

Erap found vindication in his election as mayor of Manila, the city of his birth – although rumors are rife that he will be unseated.

GMA, though held without bail for plunder and is reportedly seriously ill, is on her second term as Pampanga congresswoman.

FVR is still a jetsetter, and is still popular as a speaker and booster of Team Philippines. This idea of the nation working as a team, and the concept of a president competing not with political rivals but with the heads of other governments in terms of performance – these are missing from the daang matuwid administration, which fosters a mindset closer to that of George W. Bush: either you’re with us or you’re against us.

In his retirement, P-Noy can also set up a foundation, or maybe (in keeping with his passion) open a school to improve the marksmanship of state security forces. Or invest in a Porsche-VW Group dealership.

Unless he also ends up being indicted for plunder, considering the scandals besetting his officials. At the rate things are shaping up, FVR could become the only living ex-president who is neither an ex-con nor a defendant in a corruption case.

FVR is relaxed enough to regale visitors with stories of his presidency. He told us that when the Philippines hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November 1996, then Chinese President Jiang Zemin asked him for a tutorial on singing “Love Me Tender” and “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” to surprise their US counterpart Bill Clinton. Jiang called him “Ramos” and FVR called the Chinese “Jiang.”

The Chinese president also wanted to sing “Top of the World.” FVR told him that was not a good idea.

“That’s what you call back-channeling,” Ramos told us – something that he said the government could use in dealing with China.

This is another thing ex-presidents can do: give their predecessors unsolicited advice. It’s something Noynoy Aquino might enjoy doing in retirement.