Content deleted Content added
Line 71:
'''''Unblemished record'''''
Salonga has 5 decades of unblemished record in public service.
Despite limited means, he consistently won three senatorial elections, garnering the largest number of votes under three different administrations: that of [[Diosdado Macapagal]], [[Ferdinand Marcos]] and [[Corazon Aquino]]. He has successfully legislated the State Scholarship Law, the Disclosure of Interest Act, the [[Magna Carta]] for Public School Teachers, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, and the Act Defining and Penalizing the Crime of Plunder.
In September 1991, Salonga led a group of 12 Senators in rejecting the R.P.-U.S. Bases Treaty, effectively ending 470 years of foreign military presence in the Philippines. He echoed the sentiments of other Philippine nationalists, notably [[Lorenzo Tanada]], [[Raul Manglapus]], and [[Jose Diokno]], who felt that their country, for almost 5 centuries, had been nothing but a colonial periphery of Spain and the U.S. However he had to pay a heavy price for his unpopular decision—-his financial backers in the business community withdrew their support for his presidential campaign. In December of that same year, Salonga was ousted from his position as President of the Senate, though a later agreement hammered out by the senators permitted him to keep his post until the end of December. Salonga lost the 1992 presidential election (finishing sixth in a seven-person race in the official tally), despite the resounding support of students from various colleges and universities.
As chairman of the Commission on Good Government, he "filed and perfected" the government's claim to the Marcos swiss deposits. His unwavering pursuit of the Marcos plundered wealth was, in one senator's words, the "moral equivalent of a war." His efforts were rewarded when the government sequestered [[Eduardo Cojuangco]]'s firms including 93% shares of the United Coconut Planters Bank and 27% shares of the San Miguel Corporation.
'''''Retirement from public office'''''
After his retirement from government service, he continued his servitude to the filipino people through ''Kilosbayan'' (People Action)
He remains active as a speaker, denouncing the moral and social ills in Philippine society. Since ending his political career in 1992, Salonga has been delivering lectures intermittently in various educational institutions, including the U.P., Ateneo, Universidad de Santo Tomas, De la Salle and F.E.U. He teaches regularly at the Lyceum of the Philippines where he holds the Jose P. Laurel Chair on Law, Government and Public Policy.
Due to the serious crisis confronting secondary education in the Philippines today, Dr. Salonga, in early June 2005, launched a fortnightly paper, "Living News and Good Education", for use by high school teachers and students in public schools. Its goal is to help instill in high school students “Better English , better values and better learning in Math and Science.” Jovito Salonga has been awarded honorary degrees by various universities in the Philippines and abroad.
'''''A national treasure'''''
A writer once referred to Senator Salonga as a "national treasure." [[http://www.txtmania.com/articles/jovy.php]] Senator Joker P. Arroyo paid him the highest tribute when he said:
''"Some people make history, others write it. But there is a rare handful who, in writing--and in speaking--make history. These are the ones who illuminate the issues, and in so doing move men to answer them with noble actions...In our country there was Claro M. Recto. But if you consider the wealth of historical events surrounding a particular personality who shaped and even generated these events by his words, Jovito Salonga stands
virtually alone."''
Now in his twilight years, Salonga sums up one's purpose in life, which in truth parallels his own, in his speech before the national convention of Philippine Association of Retired Persons on 27 May 2005 with the following words:
| |||