Senate pays tribute to former Sen. Jovito Salonga

Current and former senators yesterday took turns praising former Sen. Jovito Salonga during his necrological services at the Senate, recalling his humility, political achievements and devotion to the country.

Senate President Franklin Drilon presented Salonga's family with Senate Resolution 118, expressing the profound sympathy and sincere condolence of the Senate on the death of a great statesman.

The Senate Resolution stated that Salonga was chosen as one of the most outstanding senators with his significant legislations, which included the State Scholarship Law, the Disclosure of Interest Act, the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers, and the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, and the Act Defining and Penalizing the Crime of Plunder.

He was a 2007 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Government Service and a recipient of numerous internatonal and local academic and civic awards and citations, according to the resolution.

Dubbed the Nation's Fiscalizer, Salonga succumbed to cardiac arrest at the Philippine Heart Center on Thursday, March 10. He was 95.

"Among his many outstanding traits as a leader was his fierce loyalty to our country," Senate President Franklin Drilon said in his eulogy. "When Salonga voted against the RP-US bases Treaty in 1991, he was a politician guided by principle rather than expediency," Drilon said.

Salonga was elected Senate President during the 8th Congress from 1987 to 1991 and successfully steered the votes that eventually led to the rejection of the continued stay of the U.S. military bases in the country.

"Bayan Muna, bago ang sarili. That sums up the way Jovy Salonga lived this life," Drilon said.

According to Drilon, Salonga neither bended his principles nor surrendered his dignity even if he was subjected to spirit-breaking conditions, such as when he was arrested, detained and tortured by the Japanese during the WWII and during his arrest and detention during Martial Law.

"He set the standard for public service by leading a simple life marked by honor, humility and integrity," Drilon said.

Salonga, noted former Senator Wigberto Tañada, was the epitome of a servant leader who served the people with utmost integrity, loyalty, and justice

"He lived a simple and principled life. He suffered in flesh for his beliefs. We can say that throughout his whole life, he walked the "daan matuwid," Tañada said.

. Tañada was one of the members of "Magnificient 12" who voted against the retention of the US military bases in the Philippines.

As Senate President, Tañada said, Salonga presided over the Senate's finest hour, putting the country first before himself.

"Before he banged the gavel that signaled the defeat of the US military bases treaty, Salonga explained his decisive vote: "I have been warned by well-meaning friends that this stand on the treaty may hurt my chances of becoming president. No matter. That is an inconsequential matter," Tañada recalled.

He said Salonga continued to serve as a citizen with a conscience even after retiring from politics, encouraging the emergence efforts of Bantay Katarungan and Kilosbayan. He was a beacon of hope for a lot of them, according to Tañada.

Former Senator Edgardo Angara said lauded Salonga for his integrity and honor, noting that the former Senate President laid the foundation for what the Filipinos are now enjoying.

In the five years he presided in the Senate, Agara said, Salonga initiated, restored, reinstated and re-strengthened our education system, health system, good governance - the Ombudsman and the ethical conduct of public officials, social housing and agrarian reforms.

"When Jovy took over, the per capita income was P13,000. When his term ended, it doubled to almost P24,000. Of course, it's much higher now because the GDP has grown almost five times. But just to emphasize that his quiet, but effective, humble not loud leadership, led to the laying down of the foundation that now provides us the promise of what he said, prosperity and security to our people so that one day, in the fullness of time, we will have a free society where the weak shall be strong and the strong shall be just," Angara said.

Born to a Presbyterian pastor, Esteban Salonga, and a market vendor, Bernardita Reyes, Salonga was born on June 22, 1920. He was an outstanding student and champion debater at the University of the Philippines College of Law and a co-topnocher in the 1944 Bar Examinations with a grade of 95.3 percent.

Salonga topped the senatorial elections held in 1965 and would repeat the feat in the 1971 and 1987 senatorial races, the only person in the history of Philippine politics who emerged at the top of three senatorial elections.

He was among those who vigorously opposed the closure of Congress during martial law. He served as counsel to prominent opposition leaders who were arrested and detained during the dictatorship and went into self-exile in Hawaii and California when subversion charges were filed against him.

Salonga returned to the to the Philippines in 1985 to help unite the democratic opposition and when President Corazon C. Aquino assumed power in 1986. He was appointed chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government and helped the government recover the ill-gotten wealth consisting of billions of cash, bank deposits and several titles to real property from the Marcoses. (Pilar S. Macrohon)