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<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-7/jimmy-ongpin.webp" alt="Jaime Ongpin" />
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(Jaime "Jimmy" Ongpin)
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Security guard Angelito Villacorta said he and a janitor found the body of the 49-year-old Harvard graduate slumped in the chair of his second-floor office after hearing a single gunshot about 3 p.m.
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Police said Ongpin had a single bullet wound in his right temple and was slumped over clutching a .38-caliber pistol in his hand.
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Ongpin's eldest son, Rafael, said:
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"My father's death is an apparent suicide. He had been unhappy for some time following his end of tenure from the government when he resigned."
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Ongpin was relieved as finance secretary September 16, 1987, in a Cabinet shakeup following the bloody August 28, 1987 coup attempt on Aquino, which elicited widespread criticism over rancor, policy differences and lack of coordination within President Corazon Aquino's administration.
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Critics blamed Ongpin and Executive Secretary Joker Arroyo, who was also dropped in the shakeup, for much of the division that marked the first 19 months of the Aquino administration.
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Ongpin and Central Bank Governor Jose Fernandez came under fire for negotiating a debt rescheduling agreement, signed last July. Critics claimed the agreement committed the government to a repayment schedule that made it impossible to finance economic development.
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The agreement stretches payments of about $10.3 billion in foreign debts over 17 years, including a 7 1/2 -year grace period.
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Ongpin was the younger brother of Roberto Ongpin, who served as trade and industry minister under former President Ferdinand Marcos.
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He graduated from Ateneo de Manila University in 1958 and from Harvard University Business School in 1962.
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Ongpin became president of Benguet Corporation, a major mining firm, in 1974.
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After the 1983 assassination of Mrs. Aquino's husband, former Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., he demanded economic reform in the Marcos administration.
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Ongpin campaigned for Mrs. Aquino in the disputed 1986 presidential election and was appointed to the Cabinet when Mrs. Aquino took power in the February 1986 civilian-military coup that ousted Marcos.
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In a statement, Mrs. Aquino called Ongpin:
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 "An outstanding Filipino who had the courage of his convictions.  He fought the dictatorship during the martial law years when few would do so," Mrs. Aquino said. "Jimmy was also a superb technocract and organizer whose contribution to my presidential campaign was priceless."
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Ongpin's successor and ally, Vicente Jayme, told reporters he met with his predecessor last week and saw no evidence of depression.
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December 7, 1987: former Finance Secretary Jaime Ongpin died of apparent suicide