Ramón J. Fernández

Ramon Fernández was born on April 12, 1878, in the San Miguel district of Manila. He studied at the Ateneo de Manila and then left for England where he obtained his diploma in electrical engineering.

In 1907 he started a shipping company called Fernández Hermanos with his brothers José and Vicente. In the years that followed, the company grew into one of the largest in the Philippines. Fernández also held many top positions in the Philippine business community over the years and was president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce.[1]

In 1913, Fernández was appointed as manager of the San Miguel Corporation, together with Enrique Brías de Coya. In 1918, after the resignation of Antonio Roxas, Ramón J. Fernández assumed the presidency of the company. In 1939, the management of the company was reorganized along the lines of American corporations, and Fernández was elected president of the board of directors.

On February 26, 1941, Fernández and a group of fellow businessmen headed by Andrés Soriano Sr. formally incorporated Philippine Air Lines, Inc.. Fernández and Soriano acquired the franchise of Philippine Aerial Taxi Company, Inc. and renamed it Philippine Air Lines (PAL).[2] The airline's first flight took place on March 15, 1941,[3] carrying the founders of the airline as its first passengers – Fernández, Soriano, Juan Miguel Elizalde, John R. Schultz and Ernesto Von Kaufmann.

In 1920, Fernández was appointed mayor of Manila by American Governor-General Leonard Wood. In July 1923, he resigned after his order to dismiss an American detective for accepting bribes from gambling houses was reversed by Wood. The incident led to the resignation of the Filipino members of Wood's cabinet and subsequently became known as the Cabinet Crisis of 1923.[4]

Later that year, Fernández was elected to the Philippine Senate on behalf of the 4th district. He defeated Juan Sumulong in special elections to succeed Pedro Guevara who had been appointed Resident Commissioner to the United States. In the 1925 regular election, however, he lost to Sumulong. Later, Fernández was again elected to an at-large Senate in 1941. Because the Japanese invaded the Philippines shortly afterwards, he was only able to take office in 1945, following the liberation of the Philippines by the Americans.[5]

Ramon Fernández died in 1964 at the age of 86.