To the Top — Fidel Ramos

As a young boy, Ramos watched his congressman-father chop wood and plant vegetables to feed his family. Once prominent in the northern province, the Ramos

Ⅱ.Although he was too young for military service the war touched Ramos when he helped shield his second cousin, Ferdinad Marcos, then a lieutenant¹ in the underground guerrilla army, from the Japanese.

Despite such distractions², Ramos remained a serious student, becoming president of his secondary school class. In 1945, one year before his country gained independence from America, he decided³ on a career. Engineers would be needed to rebuild his devastated⁴ country, he concluded.

He took a competitive exam for West Point, the U.S. military academy, and won the one space reserved in each class for a Filipino. Following graduation. He trained as a civil engineer in Illinois. He learned to lead by example and soon recognized his own country’s need for a professional, nonpolitical military. His time in America, he says, reinforced his strong belief in free enterprise his strong belief in free enterprise, in the rule of law and in the value of rewarding merit.

Ramos served with Philippine forces during the Korean War and then returned home to fight against peasant rebels. As a captain he helped found and train the first battalion⁵ of elite⁶ Philippine forces during the Korean War and then returned home to fight against peasant rebels. As a captain he helped found and train the first battalion of elite Philippine special forces troops. As a major, he volunteered for Vietnam, where he realized for Vietnam, where he realized that the same conditions that fed revolution there also existed in his own impoverished⁷ country.

As Ramos rose through the ranks of the Philippine military, he knew better than most the excesses of the Marcos regime. He had frequently thought of quitting, but had stayed out of loyalty⁸ to his men. “I have so many thousands of people to whom I am responsible,” Ramos told his friends. “I cannot just quit.” Besides, Marcos himself had promoted his savvy⁹ younger cousin to head the military-led national police force.

Eventually, the break came. At 4 p.m. on February 21, 1986, Major-General Fidel Ramos was preparing to face a gathering¹⁰ of angry neighbors. Juan Ponce Enrile, the defense¹¹ minister, was asking him to join an uprising against Marcos.

Moments later, Amelita Ramos ushered¹² the neighbors into their living room. The Philippines’s second-ranking military officer sat patiently as his friends pleaded. “Please, sir,” one of his neighbors implored¹³, “for the good of the country, resign. Leave Marcos.” Like most Filipinos, they believed the recent elections had been arranged by Marcos, denying Cory Aquino her rightful place as the new president of the Philippines.

As his neighbors left his house, Ramos was ready to join Enrile. Together they hoped to rally the philipine military to Aquino’s side, praying that enough popular support could be generated to keep themselves from being slaughtered¹⁴ by Marcos loyalists.

Four days later, the massive demonstrations¹⁵ fueled by the defections of Ramos and Enrile had triumphed. Marcos and his notorious free-spending wife, Imelda, were forced to flee the country. Cory Aquino became the new president, and the People Power revolution quickly became a worldwide symbol of democracy.

Ramos, Aquino’s first military chief of staff and later her defense secretary, was at one point urged by officers to join an attempted coup¹⁶. But he held firm to his belief in the democratic process. In 1992, Aquino endorsed¹⁷ Ramos in the six-candidate race to succeed her.

拉莫斯还是小孩子时，他就注意到作国会议员的父亲要靠砍柴种菜来养家糊口。拉莫斯一家曾在北部地区声名远扬，而在二战日本占领时却深受其害。尽管他太小无法服兵役，可他还是接触到战争，因为他曾帮助保护他的堂兄，费迪南德·马科斯脱离日本人的魔掌，当时马科斯是一名地下游击队中尉。

除了这次的干扰外，拉莫斯一直是个认真的学生，并成了他所在中学的班级主席。1945年，在他的国家脱离美国独立的前一年，他选定了自己的道路。他悟出，人们需要工程师来重建百废待兴的祖国。

他参加了美国军事学院西点军校竞争激烈的考试，在每班留出的一名菲律宾人的名额中，他考取了这个名额。毕业后他在伊利诺伊州接受土木工程师的培训。他学会了以榜样来领导别人，不久就发现他的祖国需要一支专业的、非政治性的军队。他说，他在美国期间坚定了他自由经营、依法办事和奖惩分明的信念。

朝鲜战争期间，拉莫斯服役于菲律宾军队而后返回家园抗击农民暴动。任上尉时他就帮助建立并训练了第一支菲律宾特种部队精锐营。任少校后他主动请缨前往越南，他意识到当地的革命气氛同样孕育在他一穷二白的祖国。

拉莫斯成长在菲律宾军营，他非常清楚马科斯政权的暴行。他常常想到离开军队，但出于对部下的忠诚，他留下来了。“我要对成百上千万的人民负责，”拉莫斯对他的朋友们说，“我不能就这样离开。”马科斯还变本加厉地亲自提升他诡计多端的堂弟统领军事化的国家警察部队。

终于，决裂开始了。1986年2月21日下午4点，费德尔·拉莫斯少将将要面对一群愤怒的同僚。国防部长胡安·庞斯·恩瑞尔请求他加入反抗马科斯的起义。

过了一会儿，阿米利特·拉莫斯陪同众弟兄进入他们的客厅。当他的朋友们发出恳求时这位菲律宾军方第二号人物冷静地端坐。一名弟兄哀叹道：“阁下，为了国家，请你辞职，离开马科斯吧。”和大多数菲律宾人一样，他们认为近期的选举早已由马科斯刻意安排，不会让科丽·阿基诺取得成为菲律宾新总统的应得位置。

当弟兄们离开拉莫斯的房子，他就决意加入到恩瑞尔的行动中去他们希望能够合力将菲律宾军队团结在阿基诺周围，祈祷能得到足够的支持以使他们自己免遭保马科斯分子的杀戮。

四天后，拉莫斯和恩瑞尔的倒戈激起了大规模的示威游行并取得了胜利。马科斯和他声名狼藉、挥霍无度的妻子伊梅尔达，被迫逃离菲律宾。科丽·阿基诺成为新总统，人民主权革命迅速成为全世界民主精神的象征。