One in every of his longtime aides, Norman Legaspi, instructed The Related Press that Ramos had been out and in of the hospital lately attributable to a coronary heart situation and had suffered from dementia.
A few of Ramos’s kin had been with him when he died on Sunday on the Makati Medical Heart in metropolitan Manila, Legaspi mentioned.
“He was an icon. We misplaced a hero and I misplaced a father,” mentioned Legaspi, a retired Philippine air power official, who served as an in depth workers to Ramos out and in of presidency for about 15 years.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. condoled with the household of Ramos in a Fb publish. “We didn’t solely lose chief but additionally a member of the household,” he mentioned.
The newly elected president is the namesake son of the previous Philippine dictator, whose 1986 ouster got here after Ramos, then a prime official of the Philippine Constabulary, and protection chief Juan Ponce Enrile withdrew their assist in defections that sparked large army-backed protests.
Ramos was the late dictator’s second cousin, and in 1972 had helped him implement martial regulation throughout which 1000’s of individuals had been incarcerated, tortured and have become victims of extrajudicial killings and disappearances.
The Division of Nationwide Protection, which was as soon as led by him, mentioned Ramos was a adorned soldier who spearheaded the modernization of the army, one in all Asia’s most underfunded. He organized the elite particular forces of the military and the nationwide police.
The USA, the European Union and different international governments expressed their condolences. “His contributions to the U.S.-Philippines bilateral relationship and advancing our shared objectives of peace and democracy will all the time be remembered,” the U.S. Embassy in Manila mentioned.
The cigar-chomping Ramos, identified for his “we are able to do that” rallying name, thumbs-up signal, consideration to element and agency handshakes, served as president from 1992 to 1998, succeeding the democracy icon, Corazon Aquino.
She was swept into the presidency in 1986 after the largely peaceable “Folks Energy” revolt that toppled the elder Marcos and have become a harbinger of change in authoritarian regimes worldwide.
In a memorable second of the revolt, because the tide turned towards Marcos, Ramos jumped in triumph together with his palms excessive up whereas Enrile was rallying a crowd underneath a Philippine flagpole, drawing applause and cheers from insurgent forces. The scene was captured by an AP and some different photojournalists and had been reenacted by Ramos every year in the course of the anniversary of the revolt, till age and his failing well being prevented him from displaying up.
Marcos, his household and cronies had been pushed into U.S. exile, the place he died in 1989.
After Aquino rose to the presidency, Ramos turned the army chief of workers and later protection secretary, efficiently defending her from a number of violent coup makes an attempt.
In 1992, Ramos gained the presidential elections and have become the largely Roman Catholic nation’s first Protestant president. His time period was marked by main reforms and makes an attempt to dismantle telecommunications and different enterprise monopolies that triggered a uncommon financial growth, bolstered the picture of the impoverished Southeast Asian nation and drew reward from enterprise leaders and the worldwide group.
One in every of his legacies was the 1996 signing of a peace pact between his authorities and the Moro Nationwide Liberation Entrance, the most important Muslim separatist group on the time within the unstable southern Philippines, homeland of minority Muslims.
Ramos’s calm bearing in instances of crises earned him the moniker “Regular Eddie.”
A son of a longtime legislator and international secretary, Ramos graduated from the U.S. Navy Academy at West Level in 1950. He was part of the Philippine fight contingent that fought within the Korean Struggle and was additionally concerned within the Vietnam Struggle as a non-combat civil army engineer.
Ramos is survived by his spouse, Amelita Ramos, a college official, pianist, sportswoman and an environmental advocate, and their 4 daughters. Their second baby, Josephine Ramos-Samartino, died in 2011.
Funeral preparations weren’t instantly introduced.