Former Sen. Leticia Ramos-Shahani dies, 87

MANILA - Former senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani, member Board of Directors of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office in Taiwan,passed away early today due to lingering illness.She was 87.
Lila Shahani, in a statement sent to the press, said her mother passed away at 2:40 a.m. Bereft and full of grief, but still strangely peaceful in the knowledge that she is now free from all suffering, the senator's daughter said.
Born on September 30, 1929,Shahani, sister of former President Fidel Ramos, was elected senator in the 1987 elections. During her stint in the Senate, she chaired the committees on foreign affairs, education, culture and arts, and agriculture. She was also a member of the Commission on Appointments.
In August last year, President Duterte appointed toManila Economic and Cultural Office in Taiwan as member of the board.
Shahani was married to Ranjee Shahani, former Indian writer and professor with whom she has 3 children.
Ramos-Shahani, a native of Lingayen, Pangasinan, was also a former dean of the Graduate School of Lyceum of the Philippines and a former faculty member of the University of the Philippines from 1954 to 1957, Queens borough Community College, New York in 1961, Brooklyn College, New York in 1962 and New School for Social Research, New York from 1962 to 1967.
From 1981 to 198, she served as ambassador to Australia, and was appointed Secretary-General of the World Conference on the United Nations Decade of Women in Nairobi, Kenya in 1985. Shahani left her UN post and returned to the Philippines to become the deputy minister for Philippine Affairs after the 1986 EDSA Revolution.
She graduated elementary and high school at the University of the Philippines. She finished her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature at Wellesley College in Massachusetts and her Master in Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature after defending her doctoral thesis with highest honors.