Former Senate leader Edgardo Angara, 83

FORMER Senate president Edgardo J. Angara has passed away at the age of 83, his son Senator Juan Edgardo M. Angara announced on Sunday.

“Sad to say my father, former Senator Edgardo Javier Angara, passed on from this life this morning at the age of 83, from an apparent heart attack,” the younger Mr. Angara said in a statement. “We ask for prayers for the repose of his soul,” he added.

The older Mr. Angara was appointed special envoy to the European Union (EU) in 2017 by President Rodrigo R. Duterte amid the EU’s criticism of the government’s anti-illegal drug campaign. He was also chosen as chairman of the New Clark City.

Mr. Angara, who hails from Baler, Aurora, obtained his law degree from the University of the Philippines, an institution he would later serve as president, and master of laws from the University of Michigan.

His political career started when he was elected one of the youngest delegates to the 1971 Constitutional Convention. He later co-founded top law firm Angara Abello Concepcion Regala and Cruz Law Offices (ACCRA Law) in 1972.

After the 1983 Aquino assassination, Mr. Angara was also among the leading figures in the National Movement for Free Elections during the crucial parliamentary elections of 1984 and snap presidential election of 1986.

He was thereafter elected to the Senate in 1987 and served in that institution until 1998 and from 2001 to 2013. He became Senate President from 1993 to 1995.

At the Senate, he pushed for the passage of that chamber’s more significant laws, including the Free High School Act, laws establishing the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) and the Technical Education and Skill Development Authority (TESDA), the National Health Insurance Act (Philhealth), Senior Citizens Act, the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act, Renewable Energy Act, and the Procurement Reform Act.