Jose Claveria de Venecia Jr. (), also known as JDV, Joe De V or Manong Joe (born December 26, 1936), is a former Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines, serving from 1992 to 1998 and from 2001 to 2008. As Speaker, he was the fourth highest-ranking official of the Philippines. He was the former president of the Philippines' dominant party, Lakas-CMD. He ran for president in the 1998 election, but lost to Vice President Joseph Estrada, finishing second among 11 candidates.
Beginning in 1987, De Venecia has been elected to six terms as a Representative of the 4th district of Pangasinan. He served as Speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives throughout the Ninth, Tenth, Twelfth and Thirteenth Congresses of the Philippines. He had served for more than a year as the House Speaker of the Fourteenth Congress when on February 5, 2008, 174 representatives, or a considerable majority of members of the House, voted to remove de Venecia as Speaker. He is the first Filipino who has held the Speakership five times in separate terms. He was conferred an Honorary Doctorate in International Relations from the University of Cambodia in 2008.
Early life and career
De Venecia was born in Dagupan to Judge Jose R. de Venecia Sr. and Casimira Villamil Clavería. In 1947, he finished his elementary studies at the Dagupan Elementary School where he was accelerated by one year. He completed his secondary education at the De La Salle College High School, and finished Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila, being an outstanding Associate Editor of The Guidon and Editor-in-Chief of the school annual, The Aegis.
As an entrepreneur, de Venecia pioneered overseas contract work for Filipinos where he was one of the first Philippine prime contractors in the Middle East and North Africa in the mid-1970s. He hired 51,000 Filipinos for his companies and engaged in port operations in Saudi Arabia, agriculture in Africa, and mass housing and oil exploration in the United Arab Emirates. His Middle East initiative was followed and later led to the employment of millions of Filipinos. In the 1970s, he was initiated an oil and gas exploration program that led to the first oil and gas strikes in offshore Palawan. He was elected president of the Petroleum Association of the Philippines.
De Venecia was a diplomat as Minister-Economic Counselor from 1966 to 1969. He conceived and implemented the historic dollar-remittance program for overseas Filipino workers worldwide. He was one of the Ten Outstanding Congressmen before martial law in the Philippines.
De Venecia came from an influential political family. His grandfather, Guillermo de Venecia was the municipal president (now known as mayor) from 1916 to 1918 and from 1925 to 1926. He ran and won as congressman of the 2nd district of Pangasinan from 1969 to 1972. After the restoration of the House of Representatives in 1987, he ran and won as congressman of the fourth district of Pangasinan.
Speaker of the House (1992-1998) He was reelected in 1992 and joined the newly created party, Lakas Tao, of President Fidel Ramos. He initiated the move to unite the National Union of Christian Democrats, a cluster of the Progressive Party of the Philippines, the Union of Muslim Democrats, and the Lakas Tao to make it a dominant party. That same year, he was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. Since Ramos got a low plurality in the election, De Venecia created a Rainbow Coalition, converging political parties that include the LDP, NPC, Lakas NUCD, and other minor parties to make a solid majority in the House. He was reelected as congressman and speaker in 1995.
Peace envoy
As Ramos' peace envoy, Speaker De Venecia reached out to insurgent groups Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) secessionists in Mindanao, the RAM-SFP-YOU military rebels, and the Communist Party of the Philippines which operates the New People's Army (NPA). He crossed Africa's Sahara Desert twice to meet the Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi and MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari and assisted in forging a peace agreement at Tripoli in 1976. His persuasion to Misuari to accept autonomy led to the signing of the peace pact on September 2, 1996.