MGB Director Horacio C. Ramos is DENR's New Secretary

 Erstwhile field man takes DENR’s top post

(Re-post from mgb.gov.ph website dated February 13, 2010)

Former Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) Director Horacio C. Ramos on Friday (February 12) assumed the highest office at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), earning him the distinction as the agency’s first secretary who rose from the ranks.

In what is seen as a landmark event in the DENR’s almost 23-year existence since its reorganization in 1987, Ramos accepted the DENR helm from outgoing Acting Secretary Eleazar P. Quinto in simple turnover rites, opening a renewed vigor in the bureaucracy's careerism underpinned by its 29,000-strong workforce.

Describing his appointment as “a triumph of a career officer,” Ramos said in his acceptance speech before some 500 DENR officials and employees that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has set a precedent in DENR’s history by appointing someone who “came from your midst.”

 “Ako ay isa sa inyo (I’m from your ranks) and share your aspirations. So (my appointment as secretary) is our triumph,” Ramos said, adding that ensuring a “whole, ready, and able” DENR workforce is among his priorities until the new administration takes over in July 2010.

“Let me be clear that I will be manning the fort only as a transitional secretary and I see my task as ensuring a smooth turnover to the new secretary in the incoming administration in July,” said Ramos.

Ramos’ career in government spans four decades of service having started from a lowly field officer at the then Bureau of Mines in 1969 with a yearly pay of P4, 400.

“Secretary Ramos’ appointment is more than simply breaking barriers in obtaining important posts in government. Ramos enjoys iconic status among the rank-and-file for reasons that have nothing to do with privilege,” said Marissa Cruz, director of DENR’s Public Affairs Office.

Added Cruz: “Ramos defies the typical image of the secretary, which has been for many years, as someone who is thrust into the department’s highest office straight from the halls of power. We at the department can say with confidence that we have a secretary who truly rose from the ranks.”

Ramos took on the bureau’s national directorship in 1996 at a time when the Philippine mining entered its most trying phase dotted with the Marcopper tragedy in Marinduque province and the opposition to the Philippine Mining Act of 1995.

The Philippine mining now offers a new face as being responsible and as one of the country’s pillars of economic growth is a natural consequence of Ramos’ labors at the MGB, being one of the primary exponents of responsible and sustainable mineral resources development in the country.

Ramos first worked at the bureau as a mining engineer in 1969 to become a supervising mining engineer which he held from 1981 to 1983, until he was promoted as chief mineral economist. He then became one of DENR’s 16 regional executive directors, a position he held from 1989 to 1992. In December 1996, Ramos assumed MGB’s directorship for 13 years, a position he held solidly for 13 years.

Under his directorship, the MGB played a significant role in shaping the current Revitalization Program for the Philippine Minerals Industry pursuant to the policy pronouncement of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to make the country’s mining industry pro-people and pro-environment.

The soft-spoken Ramos, a native of Benguet, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mining Engineering from the Mapua Institute of Technology in 1967. In 1978, he finished his masters in Mining Engineering from the University of New South Wales in Australia.

Ramos is a Career Executive Officer III conferred by the Philippine Career Executive Service Board in 1998.