ANG hindi marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makararating sa paroroonan [He who does not know how to look back at where he came from will never get to his destination].”
“This, one of the famous quotes of the Philippine national hero Dr. Jose Rizal, describes ‘my life,’” said Speaker Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte Jr., who emphasized how important the past is in one’s future.
Reminiscing about the past, Belmonte said that while studying law at the Lyceum of the Philippines, he was working as a reporter at the Manila Chronicle, covering the police and the Commission on Elections beats. “If there’s no past, there’s no future,” the 79-year-old Belmonte said.
Lawyer at 25
But at the age of 25, Belmonte resigned from the Manila Chronicle and took the Bar examinations.
His career as a lawyer also started at age 25, when he passed the Bar with high grades: 94 percent in Political Law; 93 percent in International Law and Land Registration and Mortgages; and with a general weighted average of 85.55 percent. His grades were then one of the highest among examinees.
Belmonte was born in Manila on October 2, 1936, to Judge Feliciano Belmonte Sr. and his wife Luz, a teacher. As a new lawyer, he handled several criminal cases for free.
“Continuing my 25th year, I was practicing law as best as I could. [At that time] I didn’t have choices. I was a new lawyer. Criminal cases were assigned to me by a prosecutor, and I was handling these cases for free for a few months,” Belmonte said.
Family man at 25
While still relishing the good news of passing the Bar at age 25, Belmonte and his wife Betty Go-Belmonte received another blessing from God: Their first baby, who they later named Isaac.
“At the age of 25, I was starting a family, I was starting a career and I had a lot of things going for me during that time,” Belmonte recalled. “So while I was helping my wife in her office, I was also reviewing for the Bar. I took the bar in 1960 at the age of 24 and passed it at the age of 25 with a grade of 85.55 in 1961,” he said.
The young Belmonte married Betty Go, daughter of Fookien Times publisher Go Puan Seng, in 1959. It was a whirlwind courtship that wound up with the young lovers’ elopement and marriage that ended with the untimely demise of Betty in 1994. Betty was afflicted with cancer of the bones. She cofounded the Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Philippine Star and Pilipino Star Ngayon.
Besides Isaac, Sonny and Betty raised three more children: Kevin, Miguel and Joy.
Public servant at 25
MONTHS before turning 26, Belmonte began his government service as the presidential staff assistant of President Diosdado Macapagal. “1962—when I was still 25—was the start of the Macapagal administration. It also marked my entry in government service. I joined the government at the invitation of the late Labor Secretary Terry Adevoso. During that time, there was government office called Presidential Committee on Performance Efficiency, so we were conducting the management survey of various offices there,” Belmonte said.
“Also, since Terry Adevoso was an official of a political party then, I could not but help working under politicians; I worked under him, former Labor official Bernardino Abes, I also worked under Rufino “Fenny” Hechanova, who was the right-hand man of President Macapagal. I always worked as high as No. 2. These people were very deep in politics at that time. Although I was never a candidate, still my work involved some amount of politics. As their executive assistant, I was their right-hand man,” he said.
With these experiences, “I would say I am not a total stranger to politics,” Belmonte said.
After 25
DUE to his leadership skills, Belmonte also worked as a special assistant for the commissioner of customs and as an executive assistant at the Central Bank of the Philippines in 1963. He was elected president of the Manila Jaycees in 1971 and the Philippine Jaycees in 1973.
In the Jaycees World Congress in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, he was elected president of the Jaycees International for 1976, besting three frontrunners from Belgium, Australia and Puerto Rico.
In 1986 President Corazon Aquino assigned him to head various financially-struggling government-owned corporations. He became president and general manager of the Government Service Insurance System and the Manila Hotel, and chairman of the National Reinsurance Corp. of the Philippines. Belmonte also represented the government as member of the board of directors of the San Miguel Corp. and the Philippine Long Distance and Telephone Co. He also assumed the position of president and CEO of the Philippine Airlines, which was then wholly owned by the Philippine government. All these were among the top 10 corporations in the country. “Since the age of 16, I worked—up to now and I am already 79,” he said.
Fourth-highest position
THE year 1992 marked Belmonte’s first stint as a congressman. Before he became mayor of Quezon City, Belmonte was elected representative of the Fourth Congressional District of Quezon City, and held the position for three consecutive terms.
Belmonte was Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2001, and also served as House Minority Leader. In his first two terms, he was the vice chairman of the Committee on Appropriations.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, in the hierarchical order of political leadership, is the fourth-highest official in the Philippine government.
From June 2001 to June 2010, Belmonte was mayor of Quezon City, during which time he was selected as the Most Outstanding Mayor of the Philippines by the Local Government Leadership Awards.
Belmonte’s nine years of prudent fiscal management, aggressive tax-management strategies, and increasing efficiency and growing discipline in the management and use of the city’s resources made Quezon City the most competitive city of Metro Manila, and second in the Philippines today.
These are rankings made by businessmen in the Philippines in studies of the Asian Institute of Management, in cooperation with international agencies.
Quezon City was cited for the dynamism of its local economy, the quality of life of its residents and the responsiveness of the local government in addressing business needs, among others.
In 2007 Quezon City was ranked the No. 7 Asian City of the Future, based on a survey commissioned by the Financial Times of London through a consultancy based in Singapore.
In May 2010 he was elected congressman, representing the Fourth District of Quezon City under the ruling Liberal Party.
In 2013 Belmonte was reelected Quezon City representative, and maintained his position as Speaker of the House. Belmonte said that he is eyeing reelection next year to continue his priority bills, including his proposal amending the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution.