ABSTRACT
On the 13 June 1992, Fidel V. Ramos assumed the office of President of the Philippines for one six-year term (1992–8). Ramos was elected by a small minority (only 24 per cent of the vote) in a bitterly contested seven-candidate race. The politico-historical and socio-economic legacy inherited by Ramos was daunting. Four hundred years of colonialism and oppression, widespread persistent poverty since the Second World War, and the martial law years and excesses of the Marcos regime, in which Ramos was a significant player as Chief of the Philippine Armed Forces, had culminated in tremendous socio-economic inequality.
