Fidel Ramos dies, key man in the overthrow of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986

Ramos was president of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998.

MADRID, 31 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos, a key man in the overthrow of dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, when he was police chief, has died this Sunday at the age of 94, according to the public network PTV.

Ramos, a career military man, unknowingly started the People Power Revolution in 1986 when he was chief of the National Police and barricaded himself in the police headquarters in Manila and the people protected the building to prevent a military attack after a call of a Catholic cardinal.

The confinement sought to denounce the electoral fraud with which Marcos wanted to stay in power and led to the fall of the dictatorial regime.

After the revolt, Ramos was chief of the Army General Staff in the first pro-democratic government, led by Corazón Aquino, widow of the opponent Benigno Aquino Jr., assassinated during the Marcos regime.

In 1992 Ramos won the first presidential elections held under the new democratic constitution, still in force, and is credited with subsequent rapid economic growth, cut short by the 1997 Southeast Asian economic crisis.

Ramos was born on March 18, 1928 in Lingayén, in the province of Pangasinán, north of the capital. He was the son of the diplomat Narciso and the teacher Ángela. He graduated from the US officers' school at West Point in 1950 and completed his training with studies in Civil Engineering, National Security and Business Administration, the Ramos Foundation has highlighted.

He entered the Army and was on reconnaissance missions and in the special forces. He worked his way up the ranks until he was appointed Chief of the Philippine Police in 1972. Three years later he was also appointed Director General of the National Police.

He was the first Protestant president of the Philippines, a country with a Catholic majority, who signed a new military agreement with the United States after President Aquino promoted the expulsion of the US Army from the country in 1991.

In 1996 Ramos reached a peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front that ended 25 years of conflict and boosted economic relations with Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

In 1997 Corazón Aquino, Cardinal Jaime Sin managed to prevent Ramos from reforming the Constitution in order to stand for re-election through protests.

Even after his term ended, he remained influential and was one of the first to encourage then-Mayor of Davao, Rodrigo Duterte, to run in the 2016 presidential election. He was Duterte's special envoy for China but later distanced himself from the president, saying be "hugely disappointed".