I WAS supposed to write about the cultural practices we developed and saw in the recent state of the nation address when I received the sad news from my girlfriend May-i that Gen. Fidel Valdez Ramos AFP (retired), President of the Philippines from June 30, 1992 to June 30, 1998, died of complications due to Covid-19 last Sunday, July 31, 2022. He was 94.

I have been thinking of this day for many years, how to pay tribute to a leader who was a big part of me growing up. Add to the fact that perhaps FVR is the only Philippine president who really personally knew me. 'Mr. Historian!' he would call me. Sometimes he 'bullied' me by stepping on my shoes for a few moments to demonstrate how strong he still was, such a show-off. He knew people and talked to them, charmed them with his sense of humor and other gimmicks. I joked privately that FVR will be favored by history because he was nice to historians.