BAGO CITY - The United Nations Fund for Population Activities turned over P2.4 million to the Rafael M. Salas Foundation through his widow Carmelita Salas, Philippine Ambassador to the Czech Republic, and to Arsenio Yulo here yesterday.

The turnover was made by Dr. Nafis Sadik, UN Special Envoy for HIV and AIDS for Asia and the Pacific, at rites held at the Rafael M. Salas Park and Nature Center in Barangay Guintubdan to mark his 20th death anniversary, also attended by former President Fidel Ramos and Senator Juan Ponce Enrile.

Yulo said the foundation, among others, helps future youth leaders from Bago City, funds a professorial chair and is providing books of Salas to the University of the Philippines population institute.

Ramos said Salas, former UN undersecretary general and executive director of the UNFPA, could have been the best president the Philippines could ever have had.

The work of Salas at the UN for progress through global action made us proud as Filipinos of a distinguished Filipino in the international field, Ramos said.

The Ramos Peace and Development Foundation also donated books to the Rafael M. Salas Foundation.

Enrile said Salas, whom he met while taking up law at UP, was like a brother to him.

"Salas was resilient, absorbent and brilliant, I always thought he would become president of this country," Enrile said.

But Salas did not become a politician, he became a statesman, because he was too, idealistic, Enrile said.

Sadik said Salas' work had an impact not only on those who knew him but on the lives of generations of women and men from his own time into the century and beyond.

He led and turned the UNFPA into a major international force in the field of population and development, she said.

Salas "criss-crossed the world talking to presidents and prime ministers about population - specifically, the advantages of addressing population issues as part of the broader development agenda," she said.

"It is not an exaggeration to say that his (Salas) vision of people-centered development is now a model of the Millennium Development Goals; for effective international assistance, and for UN reform.

"The global consensus reached after his death at the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 remains just as relevant as ever. The goal of universal access to reproductive health by 2015 was reaffirmed by leaders at the 2005 World Summit," she said.

Suneeta Mukherjee, UNFPA country representative, said Salas' lifework and achievements are so multifaceted and diverse that words cannot do justice to them.

He had an intense dedication, professionalism, commitment to people, integrity and personal honesty as a civil servant while serving the Philippine government and later on at the UN, she said.

Luz Dato Lacson, a classmate of Salas at the Negros Occidental High School, who also paid tribute to Salas yesterday said he had a vision and idealism and "was the best president the Philippines never had." Mayor Janet Torres welcomed the guests to Bago City.*CPG

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