House honors Solarz

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives has honored former New York congressman Stephen Solarz by expressing condolences on his death last Nov. 29.

The lower chamber adopted Resolution 720, acknowledging the country’s debt of gratitude to Solarz for helping restore democracy in the Philippines. Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., Deputy Speakers Raul Daza, Lorenzo Tañada III, Pablo Garcia, Arnulfo Fuentebella, Crispin Remulla, and Maria Isabelle Climaco, Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II and Minority Leader Edcel Lagman authored the resolution.

“During his lifetime, he (Solarz) was an active and ardent exponent of freedom, democracy and human rights, especially in the developing countries of the world,” the resolution said.

“As chairman of the US House subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, Congressman Solarz used to the fullest his office, influence and outreach in order to help restore freedom and democracy in the country,” it added.

In 1983, the American lawmaker met with the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in Manila to urge him to restore democracy and hold free elections.

In 1986, he conducted highly publicized congressional hearings in Washington to intensify pressure on the Marcos regime.

During the hearings, he sought to prove that the Marcos family used millions of pesos from the Philippine treasury to buy real properties in the United States.

An Associated Press (AP) story cited Marcos as a “foreign affairs expert who in 1986 revealed the extravagance of Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos, including her 3,000 pairs of shoes.”

Mrs. Marcos is now a congresswoman representing the second district of Ilocos Norte.

AP also said Solarz “led the congressional movement to withhold military aid to that country (Philippines) until Marcos could be driven out and Corazon Aquino installed as president.” It quoted the late lawmaker saying in 1986 that Versailles, the palace of French monarch Louis XVI, looked like an “Appalachian hovel” compared to the Malacañang Palace. Solarz died last Monday in Washington after suffering from cancer of the esophagus for four years.