Senate adopts resolution honoring Mayor Alfredo Lim
The Senate on Wednesday adopted a resolution honoring and recognizing the contribution of former Manila mayor and senator Alfredo Lim in his 60 years as a public servant.
Senate Resolution No. 494 primarily expresses the Senate’s “profound sympathy and sincere condolences of the Senate on the death of the Honorable Alfredo ‘Fred’ S. Lim,” former senator, former mayor of Manila, former director of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and former secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government.”
Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III, and Senators Panfilo Lacson and Francis Tolentino hailed Lim for serving the Filipino people “with utmost dedication, honor and dignity” for over six decades in various capacities.
In his sponsorship speech, Tolentino said Lim started his public service as a policeman at the age of 22 and became one of the most decorated policemen in the country. The senator also recognized Lim’s earnest effort to clean Manila of drugs, prostitution and other criminalities as a police chief. Lim earned the tag “Dirty Harry” for his work against criminals.
The resolution also cited Lim’s stint as a senator from 2004 to 2007, saying he introduced bills “that would address the concerns of the people, particularly the poor, and the country such as giving free medicines, and medical care to indigent patients, protecting the families and relatives of the deceased from harassments of hospitals and funeral parlors, among others.”
“The untimely demise of a true public servant, who had dedicated almost his entire life in serving his countrymen and whose principles and achievements in life are worth emulating but hard to duplicate, is a great loss not only to the bereaved family but to the nation as well,” the resolution further stated.
Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, himself a former chief of the Philippine National Police, said most policemen looked up to Lim for his contribution to achieve peace and order in the country. “I thank Mayor Lim for making this nation great through his humble contribution,” he said.
Other senators who filed resolutions commending Lim include Senators Joel Villanueva, Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, and Senators Nancy Binay and Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, who was the Executive Secretary when Lim was the chief of the NBI, commended the late senator as “indeed, a man of the law.”
“As I knew him, he would push the law to its acceptable limits because he would adhere to the rule of law. He wanted to provide a better political stability in our society then,” Drilon said.
Sen. Grace Poe, for her part asked to be made co-author in the resolution. She recalled that Lim ran and won as a senator in 2004 under the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino with her father, the late Fernando Poe Jr. as the standard bearer.
Poe said her family is grateful to Lim for initiating the installation of a 9-foot bronze statue of her father along Roxas Boulevard in front of the US Embassy in 2012.
“I don’t think anyone has given my father that much honor, aside from the National Artist Award, and because of that, we thank him and we hope that his memory will live on,” Poe said.
Lim passed away on August 8, 2020 at the age of 90, after contracting the COVID-19.