Presentation

1. 17th Congress of the
Philippines
Cong. Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

2. Feliciano Belmonte Jr.
• Fernando Feliciano "Sonny" Racimo Belmonte
Jr., KGCR (born October 2, 1936)[1] is
a Filipino politician who served as a member of
the Philippine House of Representatives for the
Fourth District of Quezon City from 1992 to 2001
and from 2010 to 2019. He was the Speaker of the
House of Representatives of the Philippines from
January to June 2001 and from 2010 to 2016. He
also served as the Mayor of Quezon City from
2001 to 2010, where he was hailed Most
Outstanding City Mayor of the Philippines.

3. Early life and career
• Belmonte was born at 1:35 PM on October 2,
1936, at Emmanuel Community Hospital
in Tondo, Manila to judge Feliciano Belmonte
Sr. and Luz Racimo.[1] Belmonte began
studying at age seven and he attended grade
school in Baguio and earned his high-school
diploma at the San Beda University in Manila.
He finished Law at the Lyceum of the
Philippines University; while in law school, he
worked as a reporter at the Manila Chronicle,
covering the police beat and events at
the Philippine Commission on Elections.

4. • At age 25, Belmonte began his law career after taking
the bar examination, which he passed with a score of 85.55
percent.[2] He began his government service as the
presidential staff assistant of President Diosdado
Macapagal. He also worked as a special assistant for the
Commissioner of Customs, and as an executive assistant at
the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. In 1986, President Corazon
Aquino assigned him to head various financially struggling
government-owned corporations. He became president and
General Manager of the Government Service Insurance
System (GSIS) and the Manila Hotel and chairman of the
National Reinsurance Corporation of the Philippines. He
also represented the government as member of the board of
directors of the San Miguel Corporation and the Philippine
Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT). More
importantly, he assumed the position of president and chief
executive officer of Philippine Airlines, which was then
wholly owned by the Philippine government.

5. House of Representatives (1992–
2001)
• Belmonte was first elected as member of the
House of Representatives from Quezon City's
fourth congressional district. He held his House
seat for three consecutive terms, from 1992 to
2001. Belmonte was Speaker of the House of
Representatives in 2001, and also served as
House Minority Leader. In his first two terms,
he was the Vice Chairman of the Committee on
Appropriations.

6. • During his term as Congressman, he authored
and co-authored several major bills, among
them:
• The General Appropriations Act,
• The Act Providing for a Dual System of
Education,
• The Act Creating the Metropolitan Manila
Development Authority, and
• The Salary Standardization Law.

7. • Although largely concerned with budget and
financial matters, Belmonte also did work for
the low-salaried employees, and was
instrumental in the passage of the Second
Salary Standardization Law (SSL 2), which
corrected the gross inequities of SSL 1. He
also pushed for the continued implementation
of the Personal Economic Relief Alliance
(PERA) for low-salaried government personnel.

8. Speaker of the House (2001)
• Belmonte gained national prominence as the lead
prosecutor in the impeachment trial of
President Joseph Estrada. On January 20, 2001,
during the EDSA Revolution of 2001, Estrada left
the Malacañan Palace and Vice President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo was sworn to the presidency at
the EDSA Shrine by Chief Justice Hilario Davide
Jr. Accompanying Davide were the chairs of the
two houses of Congress, Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and
Fuentebella. Four days later, on January 24, the
Arroyo allies mustered enough votes to unseat
Fuentebella, replacing him with Belmonte.

9. Mayor of Quezon City (2001–
2010)
• On August 4, 2000, Belmonte formally announced his
intention to run for Mayor of Quezon City.[3] In 2001, he
won the election for the position of mayor; he was re-
elected in 2004 and in 2007, with vice mayor Herbert
Bautista as his running mate.[4] As Mayor of Quezon
City, his nine years of prudent fiscal management,
aggressive tax management strategies, as well as
increasing efficiency and growing discipline in the
management, and use of City resources has made
Quezon City the most competitive city of Metro Manila,
and second in the Philippines today. These are
rankings made by businessmen in the Philippines in
studies of the Asian Institute of Management, in
cooperation with international agencies.

10. • Quezon City was cited for the dynamism of its
local economy, the quality of life of its residents,
and the responsiveness of the local government in
addressing business and other needs.
• In 2007, Quezon City was ranked No. 7 Asian City
of the Future, based on a survey commissioned by
the London Financial Times, through a
consultancy based in Singapore. In a 2008
Tholons special report on global services, Quezon
City ranked as the number 21 emerging global
outsourcing city, the highest among all nine new
entrants.

11. • Belmonte was a long-standing member of
the Lakas–CMD and Lakas–Kampi–
CMD parties from his first term in Congress in
1992 until November 2009, where he last held
the position of senior vice president for
externals. On November 19, 2009, he and vice
mayor Bautista were sworn in as members of
the opposition Liberal Party.

12. House of Representatives and
Speaker of the House (2010–
2016)
• After serving as Mayor of Quezon City,
Belmonte made a successful bid for a fourth
term in the House of Representatives. At the
opening of the 15th Congress, Belmonte was
again elected as Speaker of the House,
defeating Edcel Lagman of the former ruling
party Lakas Kampi CMD, with a vote of 227–
29. He succeeded Prospero Nograles, whose
term had ended almost a month earlier. He
was re-elected as representative in 2013 and
in 2016.

13. • In 2016, having been re-elected to his third
consecutive term as representative, Belmonte
decided not to seek another term as Speaker
for the incoming 17th Congress and instead
supported the bid of Pantaleon Alvarez, the
representative-elect of Davao del Norte's 1st
district and member of the incoming ruling
party PDP–Laban.[6][7] Alvarez eventually
clinched the speakership, succeeding him.

14. • In 2018, Belmonte left the Liberal Party, where
he served as its vice chairman, as he would be
retiring from politics at the end of his
term.[8] Belmonte ended his congressional term
on June 30, 2019, and was succeeded by
councilor Bong Suntay, who ran under his
daughter Joy's ticket.

15. Personal life
• Belmonte was a member of the Manila
Jaycees, the Rotary Club of Manila and
the Knights of Rizal. He was also Junior
Chamber International World President in
1976.[9]

16. • He married Betty Go-Belmonte (1934–1994),
founder of The Philippine Star, in 1959.[2] They
have raised four children: Isaac, Kevin, Miguel
and Joy. Their three sons have also held editorial
and managerial positions at the Philippine Star and
its sister publications like Pilipino Star
Ngayon and Pang-Masa tabloids published in the
Filipino vernacular, as well as the Cebu-based
newspaper The Freeman. His daughter, Joy, is the
incumbent Mayor of Quezon City since 2019.
Belmonte also has a nephew, Kit, who served as a
representative from Quezon City's 6th
congressional district from 2013 to 2022.