Cesar Virata, Marcos-era prime minister and finance chief, dies at 95

FORMER PRIME MINISTER. Cesar Virata speaks before the congregation at the 122nd proclamation anniversary of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, also known as the Aglipayan Church, at the National Cathedral of the Holy Child in Manila on August 3, 2024.

Angie de Silva/Rappler

The dictator’s longtime finance chief and one of his top technocrats, Cesar Virata had deep ties to the Ferdinand E. Marcos regime even as he sometimes pushed back against Imelda Marcos and powerful cronies over project spending and economic policy

AT A GLANCE

• Cesar Virata, a key economic technocrat during the Marcos dictatorship, passed away at the age of 95.
• Virata's legacy is complicated by his association with the Marcos regime, which was marked by crony capitalism and economic challenges.

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MANILA, Philippines – Former prime minister and longtime finance chief Cesar Virata died on Friday, October 2. He was 95.

Virata was one of the Philippines’ most prominent economic technocrats and a central figure in economic policymaking during the Marcos dictatorship. He served as secretary and later minister of finance from 1970 until the fall of Ferdinand E. Marcos in 1986, making him one of the longest-serving finance chiefs in Philippine history.

He was also prime minister from 1981 to 1986 and held senior positions in economic planning, the Board of Investments, Monetary Board, Land Bank of the Philippines, and Philippine National Bank. He represented the Philippines at the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, and chaired the joint World Bank-International Monetary Fund (IMF) Development Committee from 1976 to 1980.

Virata became a part of the circle of economists and administrators who provided the Marcos regime with technocratic expertise during Martial Law. Scholars have described him as the regime’s “chief technocrat,” with strong links to the IMF, World Bank, business community, and academe. 

His reputation for technical competence, however, also contends with the dark legacy of the Marcos dictatorship. His economic team operated inside an authoritarian government marked by unabashed crony capitalism and corruption. During his tenure as finance chief, the Philippines also accumulated heavy foreign debt and eventually plunged into a severe economic crisis in the early 1980s.

Virata’s technocrats at times clashed with Imelda Marcos and politically connected businessmen over spending and economic policy. Virata opposed several of the then-first lady’s projects and attempts to tap government funds, including a 1982 request for $12 million in government funding for a film festival in Manila. (READ: [ANALYSIS] Correcting misleading claims by ex-president Marcos’ technocrats)

He also challenged the coconut levy and monopolies associated with Marcos allies Danding Cojuangco and Roberto Benedicto. But his technocratic group could not consistently overcome figures who enjoyed direct access to Marcos and had their own economic power base.

Before his entrance into the world of Malacañang, Virata had built a career in the classroom. A mechanical engineering and business graduate of the University of the Philippines who later earned a master’s degree in business administration from Wharton, he became a professor and served as dean of the UP College of Business Administration from 1960 to 1967. 

UP eventually renamed the college the Cesar E.A. Virata School of Business in his honor, a decision sustained by the Board of Regents in 2014 after debate within the university partly due to his extensive service under the Marcos regime.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation confirmed Virata’s death in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday. Virata had served as an RCBC director since 1995 and had been the bank’s corporate vice chairperson for 26 years. – Rappler.com