FVR on Mar-Duterte spat: PHL president must be world-class

"Slapping each other, fighting each other will not make progress."

That was former President Fidel V. Ramos' reaction message to Liberal Party standard-bearer Manuel "Mar" Roxas II and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, two presidential bets who have been involved in a nasty word war this week.

"The Philipine president must be world class. We are no longer in the period of Antonio Luna, Aguinaldo at Bonifacio," said Ramos, referring to the infighting that occurred between leaders of the country's revolutionary government at the turn of the 20th century.

Ramos noted that the country is facing serious problems that won't be served well by fighting among leaders.

"The real problem is fighting poverty, preparing for calamities, mitigate climate change. Beyond that we have to make sure that international terrorism will not flourish in our country," added Ramos.

He added that the next president needs to focus on making life better for Filipinos.

"What we need is not quantity but quality population. UN Human development index. Quality of life. We are number 117 out of 195. Is that what we want? Kulelat? We used to be in the upper half. Let us look at the far future, not just 6 years into a presidential term. Not just move forward, but move ahead," said Ramos.

'Academic degrees don't count'

The Roxas-Duterte tiff escalated after the Davao mayor alleged that Roxas did not graduate from Wharton.

While the school has confirmed that Roxas was indeed a graduate of the school, Duterte has continued to insist that the administration bet was not a Wharton graduate.

For Ramos, however, the educational background of the president takes a backseat.

"Academic degrees really should not count," said Ramos. "The conventional wisdom is you must make sure your education goes to your mind and not your head. In the Philippine context, most important is pakikisama sa mga mamamayan so that eventually you can get them together and mobilize them as one team."

President as national model

Ramos had earlier been linked to Duterte after a previous statement that the country needs a president from Mindanao.

"FYI I was one of those who first said that we should have a president from Mindanao. I said that on October 2014. When I said that, Digong (Duterte) was beside me," said Ramos.

But Duterte's proclivity for cuss words gets a thumbs down from Ramos.

"A Philippine president must act like a national model. He must be globally competitive. You have to appear before UN, APEC, Human Rights Commission, ASEAN, East Asia Summit, etc. You have a huge international role to play. Let us caution everybody that we are no longer what we are because we are going to be," said Ramos. —JST, GMA News