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All throughout his life, Senator Gregorio “Gringo” Ballesteros Honasan
II
had been a consistent
achiever. Born on Match 14, 1948 in Baguio City
to
Colonel Romeo Honasan and Alice Ballesteros, both of Sorsogon Province,
Sen.
Honasan already exhibited above average intellectual and leadership
abilities even in his younger years.
During his elementary and
secondary
education both here and abroad, Honasan was an outstanding student who
was
accelerated into the higher grades at the San Beda College and
Dominican
School in Taipei, Taiwan and the Don
Bosco High School in Mandaluyong.
At
the Philippine Military Academy where he took his Bachelor of Science
in
1971, he received the academy’s highest leadership award and became the
Class Baron. After joining the Philippine
Army in the same year, he
went
into combat duty in Luzon and Mindanao. It was in Mindanao where he was
wounded
in action at the battles of Lebak, Mindanao and Jolo, Sulu.
Honasan’s distinguished performance in the military
earned him three
(3)
Distinguished Stars of Counter Insurgency Operations Against Economic
Saboteurs and Drug
Traffickers. Aside from the three (3) Gold Cross
Medals
for Gallantry in Action in the Battles of Lebak, Jolo and
Zamboanga in
1973
to 1974, he also received awards such as Military Merit Medals,
Military
Commendation Medals,
Anti-Insurgency Medals, Anti-Secessionist Medals
and
Wounded Personnel Medals for wounds sustained in actual combat,
among
others. Then Lt. Honasan served as Aide-de-Camp to the Secretary of
National
Defense in 1974 and later became
the department’s Chief of Security.
And,
after leading three (3) successful operations against Insurgents,
Economic
Saboteurs and Drug Traffickers, Honasan became one of the youngest full
colonels in Philippine history. Because of
his consistent excellence in
the
military, he was awarded one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men for
Military
Service
by the Jaycees. In 1986, he was awarded by then President
Corazon
Aquino with a Distinguished Conduct Star for the
EDSA Revolution and
the
Presidential Government Medal in 1986. He then became the Commandant of
Special Operations
School at the Philippine Army Training Command in
Fort
Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija in 1986 to 1987. When Honasan finally
entered
politics in 1995, he became the first independent candidate in
Philippine
history to win a Senate seat.
As a neophyte lawmaker in the 10th
Congress,
he filed 144 bills and 44 resolutions. In the 11th Congress, Honasan
has so
far filed 64 bills and 63 resolutions. Among his noteworthy bills
signed
into law were: Republic Act
Number 8368 - a law that decriminalized
squatting. Republic Act Number 8437 - which extends the period of
effectivity
of the Rent Control Law, from January 1, 1998 until
December 31,
2001 Republic Act Number 8501 - Condones penalties
imposed by
government
agencies that are involved in the National Housing Program, all of
which
have detrimental
effect on intended socialized housing program
beneficiaries; Republic Act Number 8532 - Increases the Agrarian Reform
Fund
to Fifty Billion Pesos that will be used to finance production,
credits,
infrastructure and other support
services and is intended to speed up
the
implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program and will
benefit
4,000,000 tillers of land and the agricultural sector; Concurrent
Resolution
Number 5 - concurring with the Proclamation
number 21 of the Republic
of the
Philippines, entitled: “Further Amending Proclamation Number 347
Granting
Amnesty to Rebels, Insurgents And All Other Persons Who Have Or May
Have
Committed Crimes In Furtherance Of Political
Ends, And Violations Of
The
Articles Of War, And Creating A National Amnesty Commission, As Amended
” ;
and Republic Act Number 8749, otherwise known as the Clean Air Act (An
Act
Providing for a Comprehensive Air Pollution
Policy and For Other
Purposes).
This landmark legislation ensures the people’s right to breath clean
air
via
clean fuels, emission regulation, and a ban on incinerators, among
others.
About 20 Million residents are
its projected beneficiaries. The
legislative
agenda of Senator Honasan for the 11th Congress revolves around Good
Government and Efficient Bureaucracy; Reforms in AFP and PNP;
Industrialization and Genuine Economic Development ;
Natural Resources
and
Environmental Protection and Management; Good Education for all and
Opportunities for the
Marginalized Sectors. His legislative priorities
for
the 12th Congress are: The Land Use Act - an Act providing for
the
national
land use policy and planning network and the implementing mechanism
Clean
Water Act - an Act
providing for a comprehensive water resource policy
and
water sector development, creating the water resources management
commission
and for other purposes; An Act Declaring a National Peace Policy -
creating
the Commission on Peace
and for other purposes falls under the
Committee on
Peace, Unification and Reconciliation; OTHER NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Author
of the Mini-Marshall Plan for Mindanao, otherwise known as the Mindanao
Aid
Plan or the . The Plan
was a comprehensive blueprint for Mindanao’s
socio-economic development following the region’s devastation
due to
the
full scale military offensive against the Abu Sayyaf and the Moro
Islamic
Liberation Front. To
date, his sponsored over 200
Medical-Dental-Surgical
Missions in depressed areas of the country, serving at least
20,000
indigent
patients. Prime mover of the National Security Strategy Framework which
seeks to define the country’s
national security and strategy in the
light of
internal and external security threats and the consequent National
Peace
Policy Sponsored the computer education scholarship of 3,000 students
thru
the Sulong Dunong sa Kaunlaran
program Sponsored the college
scholarship of
106 out-of-school youths Regularly distributes relief assistance to
calamity-hit
areas in the country through his Gregorio B. Honasan Peace
and
Development Foundation founded in 1995 Served thousands
of constituents
requesting for claims for PVAO, SSS and AFP/PNP claims and refund of
teachers’ loans through
his Public Service Program aired over RMN-DZXL
and
DZRH-Radyo Natin and Gringo Honasan Reports aired over RPN-9 and
PTV-4
Fellow, National Defense College of the Philippines
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