Hon. Jose de Venecia, Jr. Congressman, House of Representatives Republic of the Philippines http://www.josedeveneciajr.com/index-ie.php Hon. Jose de Venecia, Jr. served as Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines serving from 1992 to 1998 and from 2001 to 2008. Towards the end of his second term as Speaker, initiatives of President Ramos and Speaker de Venecia in the areas of legislated tax reform, oil deregulation, financial reforms, and a balanced budget prepared the ground for the historic Philippine exit from the International Monetary Fund after some 37 years of stringent controls.

 He authored a number of creative and effective economic, financial, and social reform laws and spearheaded passage of 200 others that helped create this. He also wrote a book entitled Continuity and Innovation (1997). He was elected President of the Petroleum Association of the Philippines. In 1998, he was elected President of the Lakas-NUCD-UMDP, a merger of Christian and Muslim Democrats It is the Philippines' largest political party and the ruling party. Recently, he was elected its national chairman.

Hon. De Venecia's contribution in his country includes major roles in successfully securing a peace agreement with the secessionist Moro National Liberation Front in southern Philippines and in forging a ceasefire and a peace pact with the rebellious Armed Forces group, RAM-YOU. He also scored a breakthrough in peace-making in 1997-1998: he revived the imperiled and long-stalled peace process with the communist National Democratic Front-New People's Army, and progressed peace talks with the residual fundamentalist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Mindanao.

Internationally, in 1998 Hon. de Venecia was elected in Madrid, Spain, Vice-President of the Christian Democrat and People's Parties International (CDI), composed of the political leaders and heads of parties of Christian Democrat governments and parties in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, and in 1993 was elected President of the six-nation Asean Interparliamentary Organization. He received honors such as the Ten Outstanding Young Men Award from the Philippine Jaycees for economic leadership and the President Roxas Award.