The Senate has adopted a resolution honoring Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Danilo Lim who died on January 6, 2021 at the age of 65.

Senate Resolution No. 613 also expresses the Senate’s profound sympathy and sincere condolences to the family of the former soldier, and known to be a “staunch ally and advocate of environmental protection.”

Sen. Risa Hontiveros, principal author of the measure said she is sponsoring the measure “with honor and with gratitude but also with a heavy heart.”

“I did not know that when session opens for 2021, my first task would be to honor a soldier, a brave Filipino, and most of all, a friend,” Hontiveros said.

“General Danny Lim, as most people who know him can attest, was an intellectual giant…He dedicated his life to the pursuit of excellence: first topping the entrance exam to the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), and then making it to the United States’ Military Academy at West Point,”

“Conversations with him were always provocative and provided a window to his thoughts, his ideas, and perhaps also to his inner conflict,” she said.

Sen. Cynthia Villar, who also filed Senate Resolution No. 614, said she is privileged to have worked closely with Lim particularly in the clean-up and rehabilitation of Manila Bay.

Villar said Lim led by example and was the only high-ranking government official who joined her and actively participated “even as early as 6 a.m. in our regular clean up activities in the protected area which is the Las Pinas-Paranaque Wetland Park and at the Baseco in Manila.

Lim, the senators said, is a brilliant young man who was born and raised in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya, who took and topped the entrance exams to the PMA.

Lim was incarcerated on charges of rebellion for his involvement as one of the leaders of the Manila Peninsula siege in November 2007 against the administration of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

He was later appointed by President Benigno Aquino III as Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence of the Bureau of Customs (BoC) and later appointed by President Duterte as MMDA chief.