User:Bongabs

''' ENGR. HORACIO C. RAMOS, CESO III''' Secretary Department of Environment and Natural Resources

A mining engineer by profession, Secretary Ramos, “Horace” to many, is also one of the very few mining economists in the country, a skill he learned at the Mapua Institute of Technology and honed at the University of New South Wales. He has four decades of experience in government service, rising from the ranks at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to its highest field operations position, an achievement that was never left unnoticed.

Secretary Ramos has been cited many times for his professional achievements.

He was appointed as National Director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau in March 1996, a position he held for almost fourteen (14), thus, making him one of the longest occupants of the position. He assumed the Directorship in what can be considered as a period of immense challenge for the MGB, defined by that infamous tailings spill incident, increasing opposition to the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 and to mining as a whole. Challenges that could have easily put a lesser man down but became an opportunity to test the character of the man.

Secretary Ramos shepherded the MGB and the industry in those difficult and trying years. He is one of the acknowledged architects of the current Revitalization Program for the Philippine Minerals Industry pursuant to Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s policy pronouncement on mining in 2003. He is also one of the primary exponents of responsible and sustainable mineral resources development in the country, a passion and an advocacy that he has been pursuing in his quest for a pro-people, pro-environment minerals industry.

Secretary Ramos assumed the position of DENR Secretary last February 10, 2010. He considers himself as a transition Secretary whose main task is to ensure that the DENR is handed over in good health to the next Administration come July 2010.