1. 18th Congress of the
Philippines
Cong. Bernardita Ramos

2. Bernardita Ramos
• Maria Bernardita "Ditas" Bañares Ramos (February 17, 1944 –
September 8, 2020) was a Filipina high school teacher, travel agent
and legislator from Sorsogon, Philippines.[1] She served in
the House of Representatives of the Philippines,
representing Sorsogon's 2nd congressional district in the 18th
Congress from 2019 until her death in 2020.[2] She was the
youngest sister of three-term Sorsogon representative Deogracias
B. Ramos Jr.

3. Early life and education
• Ramos was born on February 17, 1944, in the municipality
of Gubat in Sorsogon, the youngest of six children born to Gubat native
Deogracias Pura Ramos Sr. and Vicenta Bañares from Barcelona. Her
father was a Philippine Army veteran who retired as a colonel and her
maternal grandfather, Donato Bañares, worked as a judge in
Barcelona.[1] She attended primary school, initially at Gubat Elementary
School and then at Lourdes College in Cagayan de Oro where the family
moved when her father was stationed briefly in Mindanao. She finished
her elementary education at Albert Elementary School in Sampaloc,
Manila.

4. • Ramos stayed in Manila where she completed both her secondary
and college education at Santa Isabel College. She earned
her Bachelor of Arts degree in English language in 1965. Ramos
also took lessons in English drama, speech and diction at
the Philippine Women's University and later enrolled in Japanese
language classes.

5. Career
• Ramos returned to her hometown of Gubat, Sorsogon, in 1965 and
started her career as a high school teacher of English literature at
Saint Louise de Marillac College. In 1974, she joined the tourism
industry and worked as an English speaking tour guide for
the Department of Tourism during the administration of
Secretary Jose Aspiras, which also required her to learn Japanese.

6. • In 1976, Ramos embarked on a long professional career as a travel
agent, starting with C.F. Sharp shipping company. A year later, she
was hired as an inbound tour manager for the Philippine unit
of Lufthansa and Hapag-Lloyd, a position she held for 29 years.
She retired from those companies in 2006 at age 60.

7. Politics
• Ramos entered politics in the 2019 Philippine House of
Representatives elections as a candidate of the Nationalist
People's Coalition for Sorsogon-2nd district representative to
replace her term-limited brother, Deogracias "Ding" Ramos Jr., who
also previously served as Gubat mayor.[4] She won the district race
with 110,264 votes, beating former Sorsogon governor Robert
Rodrigueza Lee of PDP–Laban, Randy Medina of Lakas and
independent candidate Juan Escandor.

8. • As a member of the 18th Congress, Ramos filed 29 legislative proposals
relating to her work as a member of the majority bloc in the following
House committees: Aquaculture and Fisheries
Resources, Health, Human Rights, Public Works and
Highways and Tourism.[3] Among them was the consolidated House bill
raising the age of sexual consent for statutory rape cases from 12 to 16
years old.[6] She voted to pass the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 in Congress
in June 2020.[7] She also co-authored Republic Act 11478 that converted
the Bicol Medical Center in Naga, Camarines Sur into a 1,000-bed
capacity hospital.

9. Personal life
• Ramos was unmarried and had no children.[1] She had five siblings:
Deogracias Jr., a politician; Joe, a lawyer; Antonio; Carmen, a
medical doctor; and Maria Paz, a chemical engineer and editor.

10. Death
• Ramos died on September 8, 2020, at the age of 76 from
complications of COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in
Sorsogon.[9] She was earlier diagnosed with cancer but had tested
positive for coronavirus just two days prior to her death.[10] She was
identified as COVID-19 Bicol patient #1467.[8]

11. • Ramos was the second member of the Philippine Congress to have
died from the disease, after Senior Citizens Partylist representative
Francisco Datol Jr. who died the previous month.[3] Sorsogon
Governor Francis Escudero declared three days of mourning until
September 11 during which all Philippine flags in the province were
flown at half-mast.