Emilio Aguinaldo

January 23, 1889

Barasoain church

I congratulate you upon having concluded your constitutional work. From this date,
the Philippines will have a National Code to the just and wise precepts of which we,
each and every one of us, owe blind obedience, and whose liberal and democratic
guarantees also extend to all. Hereafter, the Philippines will have a fundamental law
which will unite our people with the other nations by the strongest of solidarities; that
is the solidarity of justice, of law, and of right; eternal truths which are the basis of
human dignity.
I congratulate myself also on seeing my constant efforts crowned; efforts which I
continued from the time I entered the battlefield with my brave countrymen of Cavite,
as did our brothers in other provinces with no arms, but bolos, to secure our liberty
and independence. And finally, I congratulate our beloved people, who from this date
will cease to be anonymous and will be able with legitimate pride to proclaim to the
Universe the long coveted name of PHILIPPINE REPUBLIC.
We are no longer insurgents; we are no longer revolutionists; that is to say armed
men desirous of destroying and annihilating the enemy. We are from now on
Republicans; that is to say, men of law, able to fraternize with all other nations, with
mutual respect and affection. There is nothing lacking, therefore, in order for us to be
recognized and admitted as a free and independent nation.
Ah, Honorable Representatives! How much pain and bitterness do those passed
days of Spanish slavery bring to our minds, and how much hope and joy do the
present moments of Philippine liberty awaken in us.
Great is this day, glorious is the date; and this moment, when our beloved people
rise to the apotheosis of independence, will be eternally memorable. The 23rd of
January will be for the Philippines, hereafter a national feast, as is the Fourth of July
for the American nation. And thus, in the same manner that God helped weak
America in the last century, when she fought against powerful Albion (England), to
regain her liberty and independence; He will also help us today in our identical goal,
because the ways of Divine Justice are immutably the same in rectitude and wisdom.
A thousand thanks, honorable Representatives, for your parliamentary work, which
enables us and establishes in a public and authentic manner, that we are a civilized
nation and also a brave one; worthy, therefore, of being freely admitted into the
concerts of nations.
You have justly deserved the gratitude of the country and of the government, in that
you showed the entire world, by your Wisdom, sound sense, and prudence, that in
this remote and heretofore unknown portion of the world, the principles of European
and American civilization are known, and more than known; that intelligence and
hearts here are perfectly in accord with those of the most civilized nations; and that
notwithstanding the calumnious voice of our eternal detractors, there is here, finally,
a national spirit, which unites and forges together all Filipino hearts into a single idea
and single aspiration to live independent of any foreign yoke in the democratic
shadow of the Philippine Republic.
For this reason, on seeing consecrated in our constitutional work the eternal
principles of authority, of liberty, of order and justice, which all civilized nations
profess, as the most perfect guaranty of their actual solidarity, I feel strength, pride,
and am sincerely impelled, from the bottom of my heart to shout-
Long live the Philippine Republic!
Long live the Constitution!
Long live their illustrious authors, the Representatives of the first Philippiine
Congress!

First Inaugural Address

by Manuel L. Quezon

2nd President of the Philippines

(1st President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines)
Delivered on November 15, 1935 at the Legislative Building, Manila

Fellow Countrymen:

In the exercise of your constitutional prerogative you have elected me to the

presidency of the Commonwealth. I am profoundly grateful for this new expression of
your confidence, and God helping me, I shall not fail you.
The event which is now taking place in our midst transcends in importance the mere
induction into office of your Chief Executive. We are bringing into being a new nation.
We are seeing the fruition of our age-old striving for liberty. We are witnessing the
final stage in the fulfillment of the noblest undertaking ever attempted by any nation
in its dealing with a subject people. And how well this task has been performed is
attested to by the blessing which from fourteen million people goes to America in this
solemn hour. President McKinley's cherished hope has been fulfilled-the Filipinos
look back with gratitude to the day when Destiny placed their land under the
beneficent guidance of the people of the United States.
It is fitting that high dignitaries of the American Government should attend these
ceremonies. We are thankful to them for their presence here. The President of the
United States, His Excellency, Franklin D. Roosevelt, ever solicitous of our freedom
and welfare, has sent to us, as his personal representative, the Secretary
representative, the Secretary of War, Honorable George H. Dern, whose friendship
for our people has proven most valuable in the past. Vice President Garner, Speaker
Byrns, distinguished members of the Senate with their floor leader, Senator
Robinson, and no less distinguished members of the House of Representatives have
traveled ten thousand miles to witness this historic event. I feel that their presence
the whole American Nation is here today to rejoice with us in the fulfillment of
America's pledge generously given that the Filipino people is to become free and
independent. It is my hope that the ties of friendship and affection which bind the
Philippines to America will remain unbroken and grow stronger after the severance of
our political relations with her.
In behalf of the Filipino people, I express deep appreciation to Honorable Frank
Murphy, our last Governor-General, for his just and efficient administration and for
the wholehearted assistance he has rendered us in the difficult task of laying the
constitutional foundation of our new Government.
As we enter the threshold of independent nationhood, let us pause for a moment to
pay tribute to the memory of Rizal and Bonifacio and all the heroes of our sacred
cause in grateful acknowledgment of their patriotic devotion and supreme sacrifice.
Fellow countrymen: The government which we are inaugurating llday is only a means
to an end. It is an instrumentality placed in our hands to prepare ourselves fully for
the responsibilities of complete independence. It is essential that this last step be
taken with full consciousness of its significance and the great opportunities that it
affords to us.
Under the Commonwealth, our life may not be one of ease and comfort, but rather of
hardship and sacrifice. We shall face the problems which lie in our path, sparing
neither time nor effort in solving them. We shall build a government that will be just,
honest, efficient, and strong so that the foundations of the coming Republic may be
firm and enduring a government, indeed, that must satisfy not only the passing
needs of the hour but also the exacting demands of the future. We do not have to
tear down the existing institutions in order til give way to a statelier structure. There
will be no violent changes from the established order of things, except such as may
be absolutely necessary to carry into effect the innovations contemplated by the
Constitution. A new edifice shall rise, not out of the ashes of the past, but out of the
standing materials of the living present. Reverence for law as the expression of the
popular will is the starting point in a democracy. The maintenance of peace and
public order is the joint obligation of the government and the citizens. I have an
abiding faith in the good sense of the people and in their respect for law and the
constituted authority. Wide spread public disorder and lawlessness may cause the
downfall of constitutional government and lead to American intervention. Even after
independence, if we should prove ourselves incapable of protecting life, liberty and
property of nationals and foreigners, we shall be exposed to the danger of
intervention by foreign powers. No one need have any misgivings as to the attitude of
the Government toward lawless individuals or subversive movements. They shall be
dealt with firmly. Sufficient armed forces will be maintained at all times to quell and
suppress any rebellion against the authority of this Government or the sovereignty of
the United States.
There can be no progress except under the auspices of peace. Without peace and
public order it will be impossible to promote education, improve the condition of the
masses, protect the poor and ignorant against exploitation, and otherwise insure the
enjoyment of life, liberty and property. I appeal, therefore, to every Filipino to give the
Government his loyal support so that tranquillity may reign supreme in our beloved
land.
Our Constitution established an independent judiciary by providing for security of
tenure and compensation of judges. But independence is not the only objective of a
good judicialy. Equally, if not more important, is its integrity which will depend upon
the judicious selection of its members. The administration of justice cannot be
expected to rise higher than the moral and intellectual standards of the men who
dispense it. To bulwark the fortification of an orderly and just government, it shall be
my task to appoint to the bench only men of proven honesty, character, learning and
ability, so that everyone may feel when he appears before the courts of justice that
he will be protected in his'rights, and that no man in this country from the Chief
Executive to the last citizen is above the law.
We are living today amidst the storm and stress of one of the most tragic epochs of
history. Acute unemployment and economic distress threaten the stability of
governments the world over. The very foundations of civilized society are shaken.
The common man alone can save humanity from disaster. It is our duty to prove to
him that under a republican system of government he can have every opportunity to
attain his happiness and that if his family. Protection to labor, especially to working
women and minors, just regulation of the relations between the labor and capital in
industry and agriculture, solicitous regard on the part of the government for the well-
being of the masses are the means to bring about needed economic and social
equilibrium between the component elements of society.
A government draws the breath of life from its finances, and it must balance its
income and expenditures as any other going business concern if it expects to
survive. It is my duty, then, to see that the Government of the Commonwealth live
within its means and that it stands foursquare on a well balanced budget.
The larger expenditures which the grave responsibilities ahead of us will entail,
including national defense, must be borne by taxation. So long as we are able to
meet those responsibilities from our present inccome we shall not impose new taxes.
But we are among the least taxed people in the world and, therefore, when necessity
arises, we should be willing to accept the burden of increased taxation. Liberty and
independence can be possessed only by those who are ready to pay the price in life
or fortune.
To enable us more adequately to meet the new responsibilities of the
Commonwealth and to raise the living conditions of our people, we must increase the
wealth of the Nation by giving greater impetus to economic development, improving
our methods of agriculture, diversifying our crops, creating new industries, and
fostering our domestic and foreign commerce. I trust that the forthcoming trade
conference between representatives of the United States and the Philippines will
result in a more just and beneficial commercial relation between the two countries.
The establishment of an economical, simple, and efficient government, the
maintenance of an independent civil service; the implantation of an adequate system
of public instruction to develop moral character, personal discipline, civic conscience,
and vocational efficiency; the safeguarding of the health and vigor of the race; the
conservation and development of our natural resources these and other matters of
equal import are touched upon at length in the platform of the Coalition and in my
speech of acceptance of my nomination, and it is unnecessary for me to reiterate my
views regarding them. Having been elected on the virtuality of that platform and the
policies enunciated by me in the course of the presidential campaign, I renew my
pledge faithfully to carry them into execution.
Goodwill towards all nations shall be the golden rule of my administration. The
peoples of the earth are interdependent and their prosperity and happiness are
inseparably linked with each other. International brotherhood and cooperation are
therefore necessary. Amity and friendship, fairness and square deal in our relations
with other nations and their citizens or subjects, protection in their legitimate
investments and pursuits, in return for their temporary allegiance to our institutions
and laws, are the assurances I make on behalf of the new Government to Americans
and foreigners who may desire to live, trade and otherwise associate with us in the
Philippines.
In the enormous task of fully preparing ourselves for independence we shall be beset
with serious difficulties, but we will resolutely march forward. I appeal to your
patriotism and summon your nobility of heart so that we may, united in the common
endeavor, once more dedicate ourselves to the realization of our national destiny. I
face the future with hope and fortitude, certain that God never abandons a people
who ever follows His unerring and guiding Hand. May He give me light, strength, and
courage evermore that I may not falter in the hour of service to my people!

Second Inaugural Address

by Manuel L. Quezon
2nd President of the Philippines
(1st President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines)
Delivered on December 30, 1941 at Corregidor Island, Manila Bay, Philippines

On November 15, 1935, I took my oath of office as first President of the Philippines
under the most favorable auspices. The Philippines was at peace and the Filipino
people were happy and contented. At the inaugural ceremonies held in the city of
Manila, there were present high dignitaries of the Government of the United States,
and a vast multitude of Filipinos deeply grateful to America and thrilled with the vision
of a bright future.
Today I am assuming for the second time the duties of the Presidency under entirely
different conditions. We are in the grip of war, and the seat of the government has
been temporarily transferred from the city of Manila to a place in close proximity to
the headquarters of our armed forces, where I am in constant touch with Gen.
Douglas MacArthur. All around us enemy bombs are dropping and anti-aircraft guns
are roaring. In defenseless cities and towns air raids are killing women and children
and destroying century-old churches, monasteries, and schools.
Six years ago, there was every reason to believe that the Filipino people would be
able to prepare themselves for independence in peace and without hindrance. In my
first inaugural address, I outlined a program intended to lay the foundations for a
government that will, in the language of our Constitution, promote the general welfare
and secure to the Filipino people and their posterity "the blessings of independence
under a regime of justice, liberty, and democracy".
Our task of nation-building was in progress when suddenly, on December 8, 1941,
the Philippines became the victim of wanton aggression. We are resisting this
aggression with everything that we have.
Our soldiers, American and Filipino, under the leadership of General Douglas
MacArthur, one of the greatest soldiers of our time, are fighting on all fronts with
gallantry and heroism that will go down in history. In the face of frequent air raids
which are causing so much death, suffering, and destruction, our civilian population
are maintaining their morale. Despite the enemy's temporary superiority in the air and
on land and sea, we have been able to check the rapid advance of the invading
armies. America and the Philippines may well be proud of the heroic struggle that our
forces are putting up against the invader.
At the present time we have but one task to fight with America for America and the
Philippines. To this task we shall devote all our resources in men and materials. Ours
is a great cause. We are fighting for human liberty and justice, for those principles of
individual freedom which we all cherish and without which life would not be worth
living. Indeed, we are fighting for our own independence. It is to maintain this
independence, these liberties and these freedoms, to banish fear and want among all
peoples, and to establish a reign of justice for all the world, that we are sacrificing our
lives and all that we possess. The war may be longdrawn and hard-fought, but with
the determination of freedom-loving peoples everywhere to stamp out the rule of
violence and terrorism from the face of the earth, I am absolutely convinced that final
and complete victory will be ours.
Soon after the outbreak of the war, I received a message from President Roosevelt
expressing admiration for the gallantry of our soldicrs and the courageous stand of
our civilian population. Yesterday, the President of the United States issued a
proclamation which, I am sure, will hearten our fighting men and thrill the soul of
every American and Filipino in this land. This is the proclamation:

"News of your gallant struggle against the japanese aggressors has elicited
the profound admiration of every American. As President of the United
States, I know that I speak for all our people on this solemn occasion. The
resources of the United States, of the British Empire, of the Netherlands East
Indies, and the Chinese Republic have been dedicated by their people to the
utter and complete defeat of the Japanese War Lords. In this struggle of the
Pacific the loyal Americans of the Philippine Islands are called upon to play a
crucial role. They have played, and they are playing tonight, their part with the
greatest gallantry, As President, I wish to express to them my feeling of
sincere amiration for the fight they are now making. The people of the United
States will never forget what the people of the Philippine Islands are doing
these days and will do in the days to come. I give to the people of the
Philippines my solemn pledge that their freedom will be redeemed and their
independence independence established and protected. The entire resources
in men and materials of the United States stand behind that pledge. It is not
for me or for the people of this country to tell you where your duty lies. We are
engaged in a great and common cause. I count on every Philippine man,
woman, and child to do his duty. We will do ours. I give you this message
from the Navy:

"The Navy Department tonight announces the Japanese Government is

circulating rumors for the obvious purpose of persuading the United States to
disclose the location and intentions of the American Pacific Fleets. It is
obvious that these rumors are intended for, and directed at, the Philippine
Islands. The Philippines may rest assured that while the United States Navy
will not be tricked into disclosing vital information, the fleet is not idle. The
United States Navy is following an intensive and well planned campaign
against Japanese forces which will result in positive assistance to the defense
of the Philippine Islands."

My heart, and I know the hearts of all Americans and Filipinos in this
country, are filled with gratitude for the reassuring words of the President of
the United States. My answer, our answer, to him is that every man,
woman, and child in the Philippines will do his duty. No matter what
sufferings and sacrifices this war may impose upon us we shall stand by
America with undaunted spirit, for we know that upon the outcome of this
war depend the' happiness, liberty, and security not only of this generation
but of the generations yet unborn.
Mr. High Commissioner, may I ask you to convey to the President of the
United States our profound gratitude for the noble sentiments expressed in
his proclamation. The Filipino people are particularly grateful for his abiding
interest in our welfare and for his pledge to assure and protect our freedom
and independence.
General MacArthur, there are no words in my language that can express to
you the deep gratitude of the Filipino people and my own for your devotion
to our cause, the defense of our country, and the safety of our population. [
trust that the time will come when we may express this sentiment to you in
a more appropriate manner.
To all Americans in the Philippines, soldiers and civilians alike, I want to
say that our common ordeal has fused our hearts in a single purpose and
an everlasting affection.
My fellow countrymen, this is the most momentous period of our history. As
we face the grim realities of war, let us rededicate ourselves to the great
principles of freedom and democracy for which our forefathers fought and
died. The present war is being fought for these same principles. It demands
 from us courage, determination, and unity of action, In taking my oath of
office, I make the pledge for myself, my government, and my people, to
stand by America and fight with her until victory is won. I am resolved,
whatever the consequences to myself, faithfully to fulfill this pledge. I
humbly invoke the help of Almighty God that I may have the wisdom and
fortitude to carry out this solemn obligation.
Inaugural Address
by Jose P. Laurel
3rd President of the Philippines
(President of the Second Philippine Republic)
Delivered on October 14, 1943 at the Legislative Building, Manila
Fellow Countrymen:

This is the hour of fulfillment of the supreme aspiration of our people for centuries. It
is but fitting that we should, on this momentous occasion, dedicate a prayer of
thanksgiving to those who paid the full price of blood and treasure for the freedom
which we have now achieved. Rest at long last in your hallowed graves, immortal
heroes of the Filipino race! The long night of the vigil is ended. You have not died in
vain. The spirit of Mactan, of Balintawak, of Bagumbayan, of Malolos, and of Bataan
lives again!
The Republic which we are consecrating here today was born in the midst of a total
war. Our countryside was transferred into a gory hattlefield to become a historic
landmark of that titanic conflict. From the crucible of a world in turmoil was unleashed
the mighty force that was to spell the liberation of Asiatic people from foreign
domination. Today, as we witness the triumphal realization of our national ideal, we
would be sadly wanting in those magnanimous qualities which distinguish a noble
and valiant race, if we did not forgive the wounds and havoc inflicted by that war, the
immolation of our youth with their golden promise of the future, the untold sufferings
and privations undergone by our innocent population. This is no time for indulging in
unseemly recriminations or for ventilating our grievances. In all dignity and out of the
fullness of our hearts we could do no less than acknowledge before the world our
debt of honor to the August Virtue of His Majesty, the Emperor of Nippon, for
ordaining the holy war and hastening the day of our national deliverance.
The presence here of high diplomatic and official representatives of the Nipponese
Empire and other nations of Greater East Asia testify to the traditional friendship and
mutual understanding between all Oriental peoples. In the name of the Filipino
people, I wish to convey to the honored guests our sincere assurance of goodwill,
and to ex press the fervent hope that the fraternal ties which unite our people with
theirs will grow ever stronger and firmer in the years to come.
I wish to take advantage of this opportunity also to make public our grateful
appreciation of all the acts of kindness showered upon th Filipino people by the
Commanders of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy in the Philippines, past and
present. I make special reference to General Shigenori Kuroda, Highest Commander
of the Imperial Japanese Army in the Philippines, and to General Takazi Wachi,
Director-General of the Japanese Military Administration, without whose sympathetic
assistance and encouragement, the Preparatory Commission for Philippine
Independence would not have been able to accomplish its work promptly and
expeditiously.
Our first and foremost duty as a free and independent nation is to maintain peace
and order within our borders. No government worthy of the name will countenance
public disorder or tolerate defiance of its authority. Unless we enjoy domestic
tranquillity, we cannot prosecute to a successful conclusion those labors essential to
our daily existence and to our national survival. Without public security, our natural
resources will remain undeveloped, our fields uncultivated, our industry and
commerce paralyzed; instead of progress and prosperity, we shall wallow in misery
and poverty and face starvation.
In the ultimate analysis, all government is physical power and that government is
doomed which is impotent to suppress anarchy and terrorism. The Constitution vests
in the President's full authority to exercise the coercive powers of the State for its
preservation. In order to make those powers effective, my administration shall be
committed to the training, equipment and support of an enlarged Constabulary force
strong enough to cope with any untoward situation which might arise. Certainly,
everything must be done to forestall the indignity and humiliation of being obliged to
invoke outside intervention to quell purely internal disturbances.
With the attainment of independence and the consequent abolishment of the military
administration, those of our citizens who have heretofore been engaged in guerrilla
activities would prove untrue to the ideal for which they have forsaken their families,
sacrificed the comforts of home and risked their lives, if they did not lay down their
arms and, henceforth, tread the pathways of peace. I cannot believe that their sense
of duty would dictate to them otherwise, than to come down from the mountains and
other hiding places and participate in the coming enterprise of nation-building. If
perchance recalcitrant elements would still persist in the sabotage of our program of
recontruction and threaten the very existence of the Republic, I shall have no other
alternative than to consider them public enemies of our government and deal with
them accordingly.
Even during the artificially prosperous years of the Commonwealth regime, we had to
import heavy quantities of rice and other foodstuffs; with the outbreak of the present
war, and worse, in the brief phase of its incursion into our country, our agricultural
and industrial activities were thrown out of gear, our trade with other countries was
disrupted, and the shortage of our food supply became more acute than ever.
Without vast tracts of fertile and arable land, it would be indulging in mere platitude to
assert that we can produce two times, not to say three times, what we actually need
to feed our population. Whether the problem is expansion or intensification of our
agriculture, the common denomination is hard work.
We must till our idle lands, improve and diversify our crops, develop our fisheries,
multiply our livestock, produce other necessities, such as clothing, fuel, building
materials, medicinal preparations, articles of daily use; in short, the minimum
requirements of civilized life. Then, we must turn our attention to the demands of
heavy industry, explore the possibilities of our exporting to other members of that
sphere those raw materials which we have abundance in exchange for goods which
we cannot locally produce, adjust our internal economic structure in coordination with
the regional economy of the Asiatic bloc, and thus contribute our share to the
realization of the noble pur pose of common prosperity. This means that we have to
rehabilitate and plan out our national economy; adopt a sound and stable currency,
overhaul our credit and exchange system to insure the steady flow of capital; foster
private initiative in business enterprise, stimulate scientific invention and research;
create new industries; establish factories and manufacturing plants; improve our
existing transportation and communication facilities; construct more roads in
accordance with a well-devised general plan to promote mutual intercourse; build
bottoms to accommodate our overseas and coastwise trade; and finally, adopt a
more efficient machinery of price control to prevent hoarding and profiteering and
insure a more equitable distribution of prime com modities consistent with our
wartime economy. All these cannot be undertaken haphazardly but must be
accomplished in accordance with a well conceived economic planning if we expect to
rise to the full stature of independent nationhood. Our political emancipation would
be in vain and illusory if we did not at the same time work out our economic
salvation.
Hand in hand with national self-sufficiency, we should look after the individual welfare
of the poorer elements who constitute the bulk of our population; assure decent living
conditions of our laboring class by raising the level of the minimum wage; afford help
to the needy and suffering, especially to war widows and orphans. Social legislation
in this direction would be nothing more than social justice in action. In the
prosecution of this humane policy it would be far better to err on the side of the
benevolent paternalism than on the side of laissezfaire and rugged individualism.
The slogan should no longer be "live and let live, but live and help live," so that the
government may bring about the happiness and well-being, if not of all, at least the
greatest number.
Especially at this time, we should guard against the dominating passion for wealth.
Unless economic equilibrium between all classes of society is achieved, we may not
be able to forestall the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, to the detriment
of the suffering masses of our population. If necessary, we should take positive steps
to attain the social mean by preventing the rich from getting richer and the poor from
getting poorer.
We are endowed with sufficient agricultural land to dole to those who produce our
wealth with the sweat of their brawn and who constitute the real mainstay of our
economic solvency. The Constitution has limited the size of public agricultural land,
which private individuals may acquire by purchase or by homestead, so that there
may be enough to go around and so that the poor may have a chance to obtain their
just share of the publiC wealth without undue competition from those who already
have more than what is necessary for their sustenance. We may even have to carry
out this socialistic policy to its logical conclusion by invoking constitutional sanction
authorizing the National Assembly to limit the maximum acreage of private
agricultural land which individuals or corporations may hold or acquire. By
encouraging and materially aiding landholding among the masses so that every
citizen may become an independent freeholder, we shall have gone a long way
towards the desideratum of social and economic stability. Love of country springs
only from genuine attachment to the soil; it can receive no nourishment from the
uprooted and artificial life of the homeless and the disinherited.
There is a need of awakening the moral consciousness of our people so that they
may be able to face their new responsibilities with added vigor and enthusiasm. We
should evolve a new type of citizen who would be ready and willing to subordinate
himself to the larger and more vital interests of the State. The Constitution
guarantees to every man that modicum of personal liberty essential to his enjoyment
of relative contentment and happiness. But of more transcendent importance than his
privileges, are the duties which the individual owes to the State. The Constitution
gives precedence to those obligation in consonance with the fundamental idea that
man does not live for himself and his family alone but also for the State and humanity
al large. The new citizen, therefore, is he who knows his rights as well as his duties,
and knowing them, will discharge his duties even to the extent of sacrificing his
rights.
Loyalty to duty should be exemplified by our public officers and employees who
receive compensation from the State. Simple honesty demands that they earn their
pay by rendering the full measure of service that is expected of them. They should
observe strict punctuality, maintain maximum efficiency, and devote all their official
time to government business. Less than this measure of service is morally tan
tamount to embezzlement of public funds. Public service, in order to be deserving of
popular faith and confidence, must be infused with a new meaning and based on the
highest considerations of morality. Government employment is neither a sinecure nor
an instrument for self-enrichment, but a noble calling of service to the people.
Dishonesty, bribery, and corruption have no place in the government and they shall
be eradicated without quarter. Our public functionaries shall be faithful servants of
the people-tall, strong men and pure, self-sacrificing women who will safeguard the
public interests like vestal fire.
In the up-building of the national character, the school, no less than the home and
the church, should play an important, if not dominating role. Our educational system
must be renovated and due emphasis placed on the moral objective laid down in the
Constitution. The other aims decreed in the fundamental law like the development of
personal and collective discipline, civic conscience, vocational skill and social
efficiency, should be subordinated to the cultivation of moral character as the
handmaiden of an intransigent nationalism. Character formation shall be the
mainspring of all educational enterprise born of a telling realization that scholarship
destitute of character is worthless, that religion deprived of morality is mere
fanaticism, that patriotism devoid of honor is only a posture. We can combat the
virtue of excessive materialism which we inherited from the West only by a return to
the spiritual ways of the East where we rightfully belong.
Redefinition of purpose and reorientation of curricula would be futile if they were not
brought to he-ar upon the great mass of our population. While the Constitution
provides for citizenship training to adult citizens which should not be neglected by all
means, more decisive results would be accomplished if we concentrate on the plastic
minds of youth and revolutionize a whole generation. Elementary instruction must not
only be free and public as required by the Constitution, but attendance at least in
primary grades must eventually and as resources permit, be made compulsory for all
children of school age. It is the constitutional duty of every citizen to render personal
military and civil service as may be required by law, and the State has every right to
expect that the person called upon to discharge this obligation be physically,
mentally, and morally equipped for the task demanded. To insure this, the State may
furnish the necessary preparatory training dovetailed to its requirements, and the
individual is duty-bound to submit to the instruction so prescribed.
All the students in our schools, colleges, and universities must be subjected to the
rigid discipline of a well-regulated daily schedule. In general, and subject to such
regulations as may be prescribed, they must wear a prescribed uniform not only to
inculcate in them the habits of thrift but to permit closer supervision over their
activities. In this way, our youth will be able to devote themselves conscientiously to
their studies instead of wasting their time and substance in frivolity and dissipation.
Only by strengthening the moral fiber of our youth and casting them into the heroic
mold shall the soft metal of their minds harden into maturity, indelibly impressed with
unswerving to the country that gave them birth. Thus will they grow into worthy
descendants of our illustrious sires who once trod this very soil as freemen in dim
ages past-brown, sun-kissed Filipinos, who love freedom dearer than life itself.
The work of our schools should be correlated with and supplemented by wholesome
and substantial homelife, in order to afford lhe young a practical pattern of social
behavior and a working demonstration of group cohesiveness. It is imperative that
we forge and rivet the links of family solidarity. The family is the basic unit of society
and the breakdown of the family can only result in the disintegration of society. The
consolidation of authority of the paterlfamilias, the cultivation of the Oriental virtues of
filial piety and obedience, and the restora tion of womanhood to its proper place in
the home this is the tripod which should hold fast and elevate the family under the
Republic.
We cannot listen to the fads of modernism which seek to f1attel our women by giving
them more freedom for their own undoing, with out undermining the institution of the
family. Nor can we deprive them of the rights they now enjoy without turning back the
clock to th days when they were shackled and were regarded as mere chattel. As we
can neither advance nor retrocede, we have to maintain the rights which we have
already conceded to our women without impairing in any way the authority lodged in
the head of the family to which they belong. This is inevitable because the matriarchy
of primitive times has long since ceased to exist. In every social unit there must
always be a focal center to authority, and in the Filipino family that epicenter has
always been the father as head of the first "barangay."
The Filipino woman must incarnate the purity and tenderness of Maria Clara, the
solicitude and self-sacrifice of Tandang Sora, the fecundity and motherly love of
Teodora Alonzo. The home is her sovereign realm and motherhood is the highest
position to which she should aspire. She should look forward to the rearing of
children as the consummation of her noblest mission in life. The young generation
must suckle from her breast not only the seeds of patriotism but also those rudiments
of family discipline which will imbue them with respect for their elders and obedience
to constituted authority.
The home more than the school, should be the nursery of the mother tongue. The
government will take the necessary steps for the development and propagation of the
Tagalog language as ordained in the Constitution not only through the medium of the
Institute of National Language and the encouragement of vernacular literature, but
also by making its study compulsory in all schools and eventually prescribing its use
in official correspondence, as well as in public ceremonies. But the home must do its
share so that our children may learn from the cradle those folksongs and folklore
transmitted by word of mouth from generation to generation and which form the
repository of our common unperishable tradition.
Man has by his science, conquered the inorganic and the animal world and
harnessed their forces to minister to his needs and to suit his fancy. But he has
neglected the science of man as a human being. It is a sad commentary on the
present state of our civilization that we bear daily witness to the lowest depths of
crime and human degradation, obtained in passing glimpse of misfits and derelicts in
human shape, and go our different ways, paying little heed to these living indictments
of our society. It is time that we frankly face the situation and remedy matters by
going to the very source of the social cancer. It would be foolhardy for us to so much
as attempt to check the natural growth of our population and, by a process of rigid
selection, produce only supermen of which philosophers have dreamed of. The
increase of birthrate, which is desirable for a young country like ours, is not
incompatible with the improvement of the racial stock. Our heredity is something of
which we have no control except in so far as we may prohibit the marriage of
diseased individuals or prescribe the sterilization of imbeciles and lunatics. But we
can and we should shape the forces of our environment and education so that the
propagation of health and intelligence may outrun the reproduction of disease and
ignorance.
It shall be the concern of my administration to improve the individual quality of the
masses by stressing medical attention for expectant mothers, correct method of
prenatal care and infant care, proper nutrition for our children, a well-balanced diet
for our adults, clean amusement and wholesome sport and recreation for both young
and old, and other measures designed to conserve the health of the populace. For
this purpose, all the resources of learning and science at our disposal will be
mobilized. There absolutely no reason why we should devote more effort and
attention to breeding super-stallions for our racing stables, milk cows tor our fairs or
prize hogs for our markel", than to raising healthy, intelligent, and self-respecting
human beings who will be a credit to our country and who will glorify the Filipino race.
There is a dire need for the reappraisal of human values, for the perfection of human
industry as an art and science, for the exaltation and dignification of the human
personality.
During the infancy of the Republic, we should not expect the immediate
accomplishment in a single stroke of the vast and vital projects that I have outlined to
guide my administration. We should not forget that war is still raging with unabated
intensity outside our borders and that we are handicapped with restricted means and
still undeveloped resources. The least we can do for a'start is to undertake the
preliminary steps of long-range planning to be carried into execution as much and as
fast as our limited finances will permit. In the meantime, the popular mind will have to
be fully prepared and rendered both receptive and responsive to the national new
outlook.
The orientation of the new government under the Republic is one of centralized
control for service to the people, regardless of any obstacle. "The welfare of the
people," in the fiery language of Andres Bonifacio, "is the supreme purpose of all
governments on earth. The people is all; blood, life, wealth, and strength: all is the
people." This is the guiding philosophy of the Constitution and the mandate of those
called upon to assist in the establishment of the new government. The scientific
method will be availed of to streamline the government machinery and effect
simplicity, economy, and efficiency in its operation to ensure maximum attention to
the welfare of the people and their needs. Red tape and official routine should be
reduced to a minimum, duplication of work avoided and unnecessary service
eliminated. But the active principle of social justice will have to be invoked to
ameliorate the lot of the lowest paid employees and increase their compensation
either directly or by some budgetary method in reasonable proportion to the present
high cost of living. This must be pushed through eveh if we have to sacrifice further
promotions in pay and, if necessary, slash the salaries of those in the higher brackets
of our officialdom.
Without political consolidation, we cannot hope to accomplish the desired integration
of our political, economic, and social life. The abolition of political parties is a
desirable feature of the military regime which we must conserve especially during the
formative period oj our Republic. Political parties have divided us in the past and we
should avoid the recurrence of our sad experience. We must eradicate the baneful
influence of factional strife and strike at the very roots of partisan spirit. I shall stand
for no political party while I hold the rudder of the ship of State. We must serve, only
one master-our country; we must follow one voice-the voice of the people. We must
have only one party, the people's party, a party that would stand for peace, for
reconstruction, for sound national economy, for social reform, for the elevation of the
masses, for the creation of a new world order.
At no time in our history is the demand for unity amongst our people more urgent or
more compelling. Only by presenting a compact and undivided front to all vital issues
of the day can we hope to erect the foundations of a strong and enduring Republic. I
consider as rallying centers of our national unity: the Flag, the Constitution, the
National Anthem, and the President of the Republic. The Flag, because it symbolizes
the sacrifices of our heroes and synthesizes our common imperishable tradition. The
Constitution, because it expresses our collective and sovereign will and embodies
the sum of our political philosophy and experience. The National Anthem, because it
epitomizes the trials and tribulations, and crystallizes the longings and aspirations of
our race, The President, because he is the chosen leader of our people, the directing
and coordinating center of our government, and the visible personification of the
State. Four-square on these rallying points, the dynamic instinct of racial solidarity
latent in the heart of each and every Filipino must be aroused from its lethargy and
inflamed with the passions of faith in our common destiny as a people.
Across the horizon, the Hand of Fate beckons us into the Promised Land, I am sure
our people will rise as one man to meet the challenge. After all, the government we
have established under the Constitution is our own government; it will be officered
and manned by our people; the problems it will face will be our own problems. We
shall encounter difficulties greater than any we have ever faced in our national
history, We shall have to adapt ourselves to the strange stimuli of a new environment
and undergo the travails of constrant adjustment and readjustment. God helping us,
we shall march with steady, resolute steps forward, without doubts, vacillation, or
fear. There shall be no tarrying on the way, no desertion from the ranks, no
stragglers lett behind. Together we shall work, work hard, work still harder, work with
all our might, and work as we have never worked before. Every drop, every trickle of
individual effort shall be grooved into a single channel of common endeavor until they
grow into a flowing stream, a rushing cataract, a roaring torrent, a raging flood,
hurdling all difficulties and demolishing all barriers in the way of our single purpose
and common determination to make our independence stable, lasting and real.

Jose P. Laurel

Inaugural Remarks to the Cabinet-in-Exile after the demise of President Manuel

L. Quezon
by Sergio Osmea
4th President of the Philippines
(2nd President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines)
Delivered on August 10, 1944 at Washington D.C., United States of America
Gentlemen of the Cabinet:

Nine days ago, when I performed the painful duty of announcing the passing of our
beloved leader, President Manuel L. Quezon, I said in part:
President Quezon's death is a great loss to the freedomloving world. No
champion of liberty fought for such a noble cause with more determination
and against greater odds. His whole life was dedicated to the achievement of
his people's freedom, and it is one of the sad paradoxes of fate that with
forces of victory fast approaching the Philippines, he should pass away now
and be deprived of seeing the culmination of his labors the freedom of his
people.
President Quezon was a champion of freedom in war and in peace. The plains
and hills of Bataan, where the brave Filipino and American soldiers faced with
heroism the overwhelming power of the japanese invader, were also his field of
action during the revolutionary days. The city of Washington where his body
temporarily rests was the scene of his early appeals and peaceful efforts for
Philippine freedom. It was here, almost thirty years ago, where he secured from
Congress the promise of independence which is contained in the preamble of
the Jones Law. Here, again, eighteen years later, he succeeded in obtaining the
passage of the Tydings-McDuffie Act-a reenactment with some slight
amendments of the Hawes-Cutting Law which was rejected previously by the
Philippine Legislature. Pursuant to the provisions of the Tydings-McDuffie Law,
which was accepted by the Filipino people, we drafted our Constitution and
established the present Commonwealth of the Philippines, and elected Manuel
L. Quezon as first president.
When the war came and it became necessary to evacuate Manila, President
Quezon, frail and sick as he was, moved with his Cabinet to Corregidor where
he shared with the soldiers the rigors of the tunnel Iife and from there braved the
hazards of a perilous journey to the Visayas, Mindanao, Australia, and America,
in order to continue the tight for the freedom of his people. Here, in Washington,
with his War Cabinet, he functioned as the legitimate government of the Filipino
people and served as the symbol of their redemption.
It was largely through his untiring efforts that the Philippines was made a
member of the United Nations and accorded a seat in the Pacific War Council. It
was through his initiative that negotiations were held, resulting in the
introduction of Senate Joint Resolutions 93 and 94. By the terms of Senate Joint
Resolution 93, the advancement of the date of the independence prior to July 4,
1946, was authorized and the pledge given to the Filipino people by President
Roosevelt in 1941 that Philippine independence will not only be established
but also protected was sanctioned by Congress. His efforts to secure the
rehabilitation of the Philippines from the ravages of war resulted in the
enactment of Congress of Senate Joint Resolution 94, which provides for the
physical and economic rehabilitation of the Philippines. Even before Congress
definitely acted on this resolution, he had already created the Postwar Planning
Board, entrusting it, together with his Cabinet, with the task of making studies
and submitting recommendations looking toward the formulation of a
comprehensive rehahilitation program for the Philippines . In the last few
moments before his martyrdom, the great Rizal lamented that he would not be
able to see the dawn of freedom break over his beloved country, but he
prophesied that his countrymen would see that day. "I have sown the seeds," he
said, "others are left to reap." Quezon, more fortunate than Rizal, died with the
comforting thought that the freedom of the Philippines was already an
incontestable reality, awaiting only the certain defeat of the enemy for its full
expression.
The immediate duty, then, of those of us who, under the mandate of the
Constitution and the laws of the Philippines, are charged with the mission of
continuing President Quezon's work, is to follow the course he has laid, to
maintain and strengthen our partnership with America and to march forward with
the United Nations with unwavering faith and resolute determination until
complete victory is won.
The tide of the war which rose high against us in the early stages of the struggle
has turned in our favor. The forces of victory are on the march everywhere-in
Europe, in India, and China, and in the Pacific Normandy and Britanny have
been occupied by the Anglo-American forces. Poland is half reconquered by our
great Russian ally. Two-third., of the Italian peninsula are in our hands, while
thousands and thousands of planes continue to batter and destroy German
communication and production centers, bringing the war to the German home
land.
In the Pacific, the progress of the war has been equally impressive. Most of the
Japanese strongholds in the Bismarck archipelago, in New Guinea, in the
Gilberts, and in the Marshalls, have fallen. The Japanese bastion of Saipan is in
Allied hands; so is llnian. The reconquest of Guam is almost completed. B-29s,
the American super fortresses, are already penetrating the Japanese inner
derenses, causing destruction in the enemy's vital centers of production.
General MacArthur's forces are hammering the enemy's outposts only 250 miles
from the Philippines; while the United States Navy, maintaining mastery in the
Central Pacific, is relentlessly attacking Palau, Yap, Ponape, and the Bonin
Islands, in its steady advance toward the Philippines, China and Japan.
The size and stlength of the Allied landings in Europe, supported by thousands
or planes and using thousands of ships, surpasses the immigration. It is no
wonder that before them the most formidable deknses of the enemy are
crumbling. I believe that when our D-Day comes the same pattern will be
followed, and the mighty Allied forces will join our brave loyal countrymen in an
epic victory.
But the forces of freedom will not land in the Philippines with guns and tanks
alone. They will also bring with them food, medical supplies, and clothing which
are so much needed by our suffering people. Thirty million pesos has already
been set aside for the requisition of these supplies which will be sent to the front
as soon as possible for distribution to our civilian population. As the war
progresses and as more troops are landed in the Philippines, increasing
quantities of these supplies will be made available. Philippine relief will be
prompt and adequate.
As Philippine territory is wrested from the enemy, civil government will promptly
follow military occupation so that the orderly proccesses of self-government may
be established under the Constitution. Red Cross units, both Filipino and
American, will follow the armies of IIt'cdom to hdp alleviate the suffering of the
people. Hospitals, health and puericulture centers wdl be reestablished. All
schools in operation before the war will be reopened in order to resume an
education of patriotism, democracy, and humanitarianism.
The veterans of our wars for independence, and all those who supported our
struggle for freedom, will receive for their labors and sacrifices the full
recognition expected of a grateful nation. War widows and orphans will be
provided for. Ample compensation will be made for the destruction of public and
private properties. Roads and bridges destroyed by the enemy will be rebuilt.
Disrupted communications by land, sea, and air, will be repaired and improved.
Towns and cities which either were destroyed or suffered damages because of
the war will be reconstructed under a systematic and scientific town planning
program. In this program, the towns of Bataan and Zambales will receive
preferential attention. Bataan, the historic battleground where our brave
soldiers, Americans and Filipinos, faced the enemy until death, will be made a
national shrine.
In providing for the reconstruction of our industries and the rehabilitation of our
agriculture, immediate attention will be given to factory workers and farm hands
throughout the Philippines, and full and generous assistance will be given to the
small farmers who, because of the war, have lost their nipa huts, their work
animals, and farm implements.
We are making preparations to meet the manifold problems arising from the
closing and insolvency of our banks, insurance and credit institutions, the
adulteration of our currency with unsound enemy issues, the impairment of the
basis of taxation, and the initial difficulty of tax collection. Moreover, we are
formulating a long-range economic program with a view to securing that sound
economic foundation which will give our independence stability and
permanence.
In the gigantic task of rehabilitation and reconstruction, we are assured of
America's full assistance and support. The joint Filipino-American Rehabilitation
Commission is under the chairmanship of a staunch friend of the Filipino people,
Senator Tydings of Maryland. To it is entrusted the task of studying and
recommending to the United States and Philippine governments measures
calculated to secure the complete physical and economic rehabilitation of the
Philippines and the reestablishment as soon as possible of such commercial
relations between the two countries, and will assure us a reasonable level of
public and private property.
In the preparation and execution of the Filipino rehabilitation program, America's
support and assistance are essential. But there are responsibilities which we as
people must undertake ourselves, and which can be assumed only if we are
faithful to our ideals, principles, and commitments.
We are a Christian people and the faith that we imbibed spran from our contacts
with nations of Occidental civilization. We embraced Christianity a century
before the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth, For more than four hundred
years we have kept that faith. We cannot now turn back and be a pagan people.
For centuries, we have been a law-abiding people. We believe in and practice
democracy. That is the reason why Section III, Article II of our Constitution
provides that we renounce war as an instrument of national policy and adopt the
generally accepted principles of international law as part of the law of the nation.
It is repugnant to our Christian traditions and democratic ideals to be the
satellite of a conquering power or to be allied with the masters of brute force,
whether in Asia, Europe, or elsewhere.
The mutual relationship between the American and Filipino peoples for half a
century has revealed to the Filipinos the high ideals of the American nation and
the good faith that has always animated the United States in its dealings with
us. Out of this association have arisen mutual understanding and continuous
cooperation between the two countries, resulting in great national progress for
 the Philippine progress that is without parallel in history. In the epic of Bataan,
where the American and Filipino soldiers fought together, the enduring
friendship of our two peoples was sealed.
In this war between a free world and a slave world, the Philippines has freely
and voluntarily taken side with the defenders of liberty and democracy. In the
same manner as the enemy is resorting to every means to attain his evil ends,
the United Nations are exerting their utmost to achieve complete victory.
Pledged in this war to the finish, we will continue doing our best to help the war
effort. Every commitment made by us in this respect will be fulfilled.
The Filipino people, with their wisdom in peace and gallantry in war, have
established their right to take place in the family of nations as a full and
sovereign member. We cannot renounce this right nor its ohligations and
responsibilities. We shall, as a free and self-respecting nation, fulfill our duties
not only to ourselves but also to the entire freedom-Ioving world by participating
in the establishment and preservation of a just peace for the benefit of mankind.
Our path of duty is clear. It is the path of national honor, dignity, .1Ild
responsibility. It was laid out for us by the great heroes of our race Rizal,
Bonifacio, and Quezon. We shall move forward steadily to reach our goal,
maintaining our faith in the United States and fully ooperating with her.
In the fulfillment of my duties as President of the Philippines, I ask in all humility
and in all earnestness the cooperation of all my countrymen in the United
States, Hawaii, in the homeland and elsewhere in the world. With their full and
unstinted cooperation and support, and God helping me, I shall not fail.

Sergio Osmea

manuel roxas

My Countrymen:
I have taken my oath as President of the Philippines to defend and support the
Constitution and to enforce the laws of our country. I assume in all humbleness the
complex responsibilities which you have chosen to give me. I pledge my efforts and
my life to discharge them with whatever talent, strength, and energy I can muster.
But those responsibilities must be shared by the Congress, by the other branches of
government, and, in the last analysis, by all people of the Philippines who face
together the great test of the future. I would not be content to assume this office, I
would not have the hope to discharge the duties assigned me if I were not confident
that my countrymen are ready and capable of sharing in full measure the work and
sacrifices which lie ahead. Certainly no people in recent history have been called
upon to surmount the obstacles which confront us today. But I have supreme faith in
the ability of our people to reach the goals we seek. I ask from the nation the full and
undivided support of heart, mind, and energy for the necessary tasks which await us.
In our traditions there are ample sources of inspiration. From the recent past we have
the standard of dynamic leadership erected by Manuel Quezon, that mighty
champion of independence and great benefactor of the masses of the people. We
have the spotless integrity, and noble patriotism of Sergio Osmea who grasped the
banner of leadership when the incomparable Quezon was taken from us.
Our appointment with destiny is already upon us. In five weeks we will be a free
Republic. Our noble aspirations for nationhood, long cherished and arduously
contended for by our people will be realized. We will enter upon a new existence in
which our individual lives will form together a single current, recognized and identified
in the ebb and flow of world events as distinctly Filipino.
Yet look about you, my fellow citizens. The tragic evidence of recent history stares at
us from the broken ruins of our cities and the wasting acres of soil. Beneath the
surface of our daily strivings lie deep the wounds of war and economic prostration.
The toppled columns of the Legislative Building before which we stand are mute and
weeping symbols of the land we have inherited from the war.
Unemployment is increasing as the United States Armed Forces decrease the tempo
of activities here. Our soldiers are being discharged in growing numbers to swell the
ranks of those who must find work and livelihood. Many of those who work are
employed in trades dependent on the rapidly shrinking expenditures of the Army and
Navy.
There is hunger among us. In the mountain provinces and in other far-flung areas of
our land, children starve. Prices race with wages in the destructive elevators of
inflation. The black market with all its attendant evils of disrespect for law and public
morality thrives in the channels of commerce.
Plagues of rats and locusts gnaw at our food supplies. Public health and sanitation
have been set back a quarter of a century.
Housing for most of our urban citizens is shocking in its inadequacy and squalor.
Disease and epidemic threaten, and we have to thank the Divine Providence that the
toll of death is still relatively small.
Our communications are destroyed, stolen or disrupted, and many of our countrymen
are still today cut off from national ide. Schoolhouses are burned and teachers have
been kflled, our educational system is in large measures a shambles.
I have sketched a dark landscape, a bleak prospect for our future. I have not meant
to dramatize unduly our ills. I do not wish to parade the sackcloth and ashes of our
people. Nevertheless it is necessary to know the truth. Many of us live today in the
chambered nautilus .of our own mental construction. There are those who close their
eyes to the problems that confront us, and prefer to direct the national attention and
the national energy at objects outside ourselves, at fancied enemies, at fancied fears
of imperialistic aggression. The coincidence of easy money and high prices gives to
some of our people the false illusion of national prosperity and the mad notion that
we have time to dally and debate. The prosperity of money and prices is a
hallucination, a nightmarish dream resulting from the scarcity of commodities and the
influx of half a billion dollars of troop money. Soon, very soon, we must awake from
that dream. We will find that more money, bloated by inflation and circulating in
narrow charnels, does not bring about prosperity and national well being. Everyday,
that money is being siphoned from our land by more and more imports-not
productive imports, but imports of consumption. The well-being of the trades man
alone is not the well-being of our people. Disaster awaits us tomorrow if we do not
rouse ourselves and get back to work, to productive work.
I recall our national temper and our national condition five years ago, the last year of
the generation of peace.
We had then a land of comparative plenty. The products of our fields and farms were
flowing in a never-ending stream across the oceans to the United States, to Europe,
China even to Japan and Russia.
The Government was rich in revenue from taxes, from customs, and from the
refunded collections on Philippine products processed and taxed in the United
States. We were in the midst of a program aimed at the eventual achievement of
social justice for the underprivileged elements of our population. Yes, we had those
elements then, as we have them now. We must not imagine that economic
maladjustments, land hunger, and farm tenancy are problems born of recent years.
They are as old as present civilization in the Philippines.
The brutal hand of war spread its breadth across our land and blotted out not only
our progress toward a fuller life for all, but our entire economy, all the economic
goods and toils we had amassed by a cenlury of labor. We had not expected to be a
battleground. We had not expected war. Nor were we alone among the peoples of
the earth in our lack of understanding of the military aims of our enemies.
We were treacherously attacked; soon, despite the unmeasured heroism of our men
at arms and of their gallant American comrades on Bataan and Corregidor, despite
the magnificent courage and leadership of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, our land was
conquered. A new sovereignty, by dint of force, was imposed upon us. From the
beginning the Filipinos had indicated by word and deed that the fate of the United
States in this global conflict was the fate of the Philippines. President Quezon offered
the United States the blood and treasure of the Filipino people until victory came. We
did not then realize how complete that offer was!
For three and a half years we were an unwilling part of the Japanese sphere of
conquest. But though the land was possessed, there was never a moment in which
our hearts ir convictions faltered. The Filipinos discharged their dept of allegiance to
the United States with a payment of loyalty which has never been surpassed.
I need not refer further in phrase or word to the gallantry of our countrymen in their
resistance to the Japanese. The deeds of the Filipino people have been celebrated
wherever men have gathered to pay tribute to heroism, courage and fidelity. Their
gallantry has become an epic, a by-word, a standard by which all heroism may be
measured. Many have tried to explain that heroism and that loyalty. But like all
heroism it rises above the logic of reason. I judge it a proof and product of the
passion for democracy and freedom which America has taught us during forty-eight
years. That teaching took deep root in a soil made fertile by our great heroes of pre-
American days Rizal, Mabini, and Bonifacio. Our hearts were ready when
Americans came in 1898. By the manner in which America discharged her trust, we
developed a devotion to that great nation which I know will exist for all time.
A nation is something more than the people who inhabit a geographic area. It is a
spirit, a tradition, and a way life. There have been American administrations from
which we have received scant comfort. There have been American governors-
general with whom we have quarreled. But we have never had cause to waver in our
confidence or faith in America. We have elapsed to our bosom her system of
government, her language, her institutions, her historical traditions. We have made
them ours.
We are to be a free nation largely because we were aided in that direction by the
love of liberty and the goodwill of the American people. If we succeed as a nation, if
we are able to survive as a nation-and of course we will-we will have America to
thank. I bear witness to the fact that America stands ready to help without
selfishness, without motive except to reward us for our loyalty and to advance in our
land the great cause democracy and freedom for which Americans and Filipinos died
together, in many corners of the earth in the past four years.
I find no dream of empire in America. Whiie cognizant of power, America, as a
nation, is troubled in the use of that power by an earnest and heartfelt desire to
advance not the cause of greed but the cause of freedom. We are and shall be a
living monument of this fact.
Yet we have today in our own land a few among us who would have us believe that
we are in danger of an imperialistic invasion from the very nation which is granting us
our sovereignty. They would have us believe that the American Republic,
resplendent in her power and prestige as the leader of democracy and the
spokesman for freedom, would lend herself to a theft of our national heritage for the
sake of a thimble-full of profits. No, my mind will not stoop to as Iow a conceit as that.
That nation which spent 300 billion dollars to arm the hosts of freedom, the nation
which has spent and is spending so much of its substance not only to free but also to
feed the hungry peoples of the earth will not do that. Small minds see small deeds. I
will not place my Covernment in the position of accusing the United States Congress
of willingly conspiring to cheat us of our birthright. I admit the possibility of error in the
United States Congress as in any other constitutional body. But I have faith that
justice will be done us by a country which has been our mother, our protector, our
liberator, and now our benefactor. In this world, the balances of justice move only on
great momentums. I am firmly convinced that when the scales point unmistakably to
injustice being rendered us, the United States Congress will grant us redress in full
and generous measure.
I have no fears from a nation which idolizes humanity and crowns with laurels those
who fight for freedom and brotherhood. There is no greater regard in America today
than the national regard for our people. Shall we sacrifice that rich regard on the altar
of petty pride and foolish fears? Shall we hold up to world obloquy the country whose
legions liberated us for freedom? Shall we give comfort to the enemies of liberty in
the crisis which grips the earth? The forces of evil may be defeated, but they are not
dead. And there are new forces of evil growing even in nations which were our allies.
I see such forces reflected in the policies of the United States.
Let us strengthen as much as we can the hand of the nation which stands clearly in
the world's confusion today for democracy and for justice under the law. Let us bide
our time for the rectification for alleged impositions. When the time comes, let us
present facts rather than fears.
The gratitude of the Filipino people to America is great and enduring. Our feeling
toward America is not represented by the loud complaints of an articulate few in our
midst. I say in the presence of our great American High Commissioner one of the
ablest and most unselfish of our advocates and friends that the America of
Franklin D. Roosevelt and of President Truman is a land we love and respect. The
mighty concern that these men have felt for our welfare dwarfs the magnitude of our
facied ills against United States today.
Meanwhile, with the tools which have been provided us, we must move forward
without pause to bind lip this nation's wounds, to toil, to make, and to build. We have,
and will have, a market for our produce. We must concentrate on production, on
ever-increasing production. This nation must produce to live. We must have income
from abroad income from exports. We must have that income so that we may buy
the machines, hire the technical skills, and for a time, buy the food which we need to
sustain our strength and import vigor and health of our young. That task must begin
now, today. The time for action has come. The national energy, in all its parts, must
be focused on a single purpose, on the rehabilitation of our destroyed and ravaged
economic enterprises on rice, on sugar, on coconuts, on abaca, on coconut oil, on
cigars, and tobacco on gold and chrome, and manganese and lumber. We must
foster the enterprises which will raise the national income and bring in financial
returns from abroad.
But our aim is not alone to rebuild the economy that was broken and destroyed by
war. That is only the beginning of our task, stupendous as it is. We must rebuild,
repair, and replace. We must feed the hungry and heal the sick and the disabled. We
must care for the widows and orphans of our dead soldiers. We must wage war
against inflation and unemployment. That is the obvious foundation stone of national
rehabilitation. But we know, we have known, that the narrow economy of the past
must be broadened. The national structure must be sufficient to house the energies
of the whole people. For the Philippines to fit into the pattern of the 20th century, to
take its place as an equal among the nations of the earth, we must industrialize; we
must make as well as grow. Only in this way can we raise to substantial and
permanently high levels the living standards of our people. To support this kind of
economy, the producers must become consumers and purchasers. They must have
the income with which to buy the products of their toil. Higher wages accompanied by
efficient and increased production are true roads to full employment. Increased
wages and income in pesos must represent increased purchasing power. Prices
must be kept under control until productions and importation reach saturation levels.
We must avoid a price structure based on inflated prices. Meanwhile, we must
encourage the production of more and' more of our primary requirements, production
of things we ourselves will consume. The encouragement of production for
consumption and the increase in the purchasing power of the masses are parallel
patches which we must travel.
Our people are well-known for their handicraft and for their ingenuity. There are
available in the world today tools and machines of which we must become the
masters. There are many natural resources in our land which can be produced by the
methods of modern technology into finished items for our consumption and for sale
abroad. There are many small industrial and business enterprises which must attract
the skills and talents of our citizens. Every encouragement must be given the Filipino
to participate in all the operations our new economy at all its levels. But this
participation cannot be a grant of government. Participation in business and industry
cannot be magically induced. Opportunity can be afforded but it is the responsibility
of the individual and groups of individuals to strive for and capture that opportunity
and, by so doing, become integral parts of the expanded economy of the nation.
Tools and improvements will be needed to make this dream an actuality. Capital will
be required. The savings of our own people will be called for, but they are
inadequate. We must invite foreign capital, American capital, investment capital.
We may wisely look to the great international organs, the International Monetary and
Rehabilitation Bank and others, for financial aid. We may look to the United Nations
Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. But for some of our needs we can only
obtain assistance from the United States. In addition, we must remember that the
United States is the source of most finances of all these organizations. What we can
secure directly from the United States is far better and more expeditiously obtained
than through the devious channels of international action. We must bear in mind in
this and other connections that the great international organization of the United
Nations, lofty in concept, is yet only an infant in the arena of world affairs. Recent
events have demonstrated to us, as to the rest of the world, that the skeleton of the
United Nations Organization must grow flesh and develop muscles of its own before
it can be depended upon as a repository of our immediate hopes.
We will be as wholehearted as any nation in our devotion to the ideals of an
indivisible peace and an indivisible world. We will maintain with all our strength and
all our power our obligations to the United Nations, and to the causes set forth in the
United Nations Charter to which we are a signatory. In the same way, we will
maintain friendly and honorable relations with all our neighbors and look forward to
the day when peace and security will be maintained by mutual consent and by the
collective conscience of mankind.
But until that happy day dawns upon us, we can much more selurely repose our fate
in the understanding and comradeship which exist between the Philippines and the
United States than in the hope of an international morality which, however desirable
is still today in the process of development. We are fortunate to have as the
guarantor of our security the United States of America, which is today the bulwark
and support of small nations everywhere in the world.
I have spoken of the past; I have spoken of the future; I have not spoken much of the
present. I have suggested some of the problems we face. I have not referred to one
of our urgent ones.
In some of the provinces of our land the rule of law and order has yielded to the rule
of force and terror. Using economic injustice as'a rallying cry, demagogues have
destroyed the precious fabric of publiC faith in democratic procedure. The faith of the
people in government and in law shall be restored. I pledge myself to rectify
injustices but I likewise pledge myself to restore the role of law and government as
the arbiter of right among the people.
A great American who loved mankind and died in its name, Abraham Lincoln, once
said:

"Among free men there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the
bullet... they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case and pay the
cost."

This great humanitarian could not be accused of placing the values of law above
human values. He recognized as do all right-minded men that if government has
one function, it is to insure the reign of law for the protection of the weak in their
inalienable rights the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This
Government is pledged to maintain the rights of the underprivileged with all its
strength and all its power. It will see justice done to the poor, the lowly and the
disinherited. But it will not permit, it will oppose with every force at its command
if necessary the imposition of extralegal rule over any section of this country by
any group of self-anointed leaders or individuals. The show of arms and terror
will not daunt us. Defiance will not obtain from us a single additional iota of
justice. Justice is absolute and is not to be measured by strength of contention.
We will move with maximum speed to cure the ills which beset the landlesss
and the tenants, the hungry and the unemployed. Only unavoidable lack of
means can delay the full execution of this policy. A new tenacy law, granting a
greater share of the prodlltc of the land to those who till the soil will be
recommended; usury will be stamped out; lands will be purchased by the
Government and resold to tenants, new agricultural areas will be opened to
settlement; modern method of agriculture will be taught, and fann machinery will
be made available for purchase. It is my aim to raise the status of the farm
worker, to increase his earnings, to spread wide the benefits of modern
technology.
Labor must be given the full fruits of its toil. Its right of organization must be
protected. The dignity of work and the worker's equity in the product of his labor
must be assured by the Government. We will endeavor to assure economic
security for all our people. But meanwhile terror must be abandoned as an
instrument of justice. Lawlessness must stop without a moment's delay. Our
people, starting out on a career of nationhood, cannot permit national efforts to
be influenced by fear. This proud nation will not grant economic concessions at
gunpoint. Arms must be surrendered, except by those licensed to bear arms.
The Government will undertake to protect man, woman, and child in the security
of his person, of his liberty, and of his property. That protection is an absolute
requisite of progress.
We understand the habit of violence which developed in time of war when
violence was the creed of freedom. Many of those who now hold arms illegally
served well our common cause. We will not forget their services. We are not
without sympathy for the centuries old burdens of injustice visited upon some of
our people. We must understand that anger will lurk in the hearts of men when
the gains won by violence in war seem about to be taken away. But the rough
gains achieved in the absence of law are transitory and insecure. Be assured
that the welfare of those who suffered injustice in past years will be heeded.
Their war-won gains will be replaced by more substantial benefits of justice, of
peace and tranquillity within a framework of national prosperity and economic
well-being. But first, arms must be surrendered, and the leaders of violence
must recognize the leaders duly chosen by the free vote of the people.
I recognize that government, in order to maintain respect for law, must in itself
bear the unassailable stamp of integrity. Honesty in government is the first
essential for the maintenance by the people of faith in its actions. It is corollary
of this that government must be efficient and must watch with a vigilant eye the
expenditures of public funds. Public officials must render public service. That is
their duty. That is their responsibility. Every centavo of the people's money must
be spent IlIt' the people's benefit. I intend to maintain these standards during my
administration.
We have great tasks before us, tasks which challenge the very best and the
most that is within us. There is no seed of effort which lan be spared from the
national planting. Charity and understanding must replace bitterness and anger.
We cannot afford to cherish old lcuds or old divisions. For the many tasks of
national reconstruction, we need the thousand talents of all our people-men and
women alike. The recent elections are past. Likewise the strife of war is over.
Bitterness engendered by these events must be forgotten and healed. Violations
of basic law will be tested and punished by law. Traitors will not escape their just
desserts. But among the people, there must be no recriminations or
 malignancies. Errors of mind rather than of heart must be forgiven. The weat
test of war and sacrifice through which we have passed with such hardship will
have failed in one of its few benefits if it has not taught us that only in unity can
there be power, that only in singleness of national purpose can there be
achieved national salvation. I do not mean to suggest that there is no room in
this democracy for division of views or of parties. Vigilant, free, and constructive
minority organization is a spur to majority leadership and responsibility.
But as we go forward in our full faith to work out the destiny of ollr land and of
our people, we must cling fast to one another, and into our friends across the
seas; we must maintain in both our hearts and minds a gentleness of purpose.
Sweat and sacrifice will be needed, but they will fall on barren ground, unless
we move into the path of God, with malice toward none, with charity for all, with
firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right.
I have faith in the wisdom of our people. I have trust in the goodness of God. Let
us together maintain our faith in each other, in liberty and in ways of democracy,
and give strength to one another as we advance in our search for the evergreen
pastures of peace and well being for all. With the help of God, let us build in this
our land a monument to freedom and to justice, a beacon to all mankind.

Inaugural Remarks after the demise of President Manuel Roxas

by Elpidio Quirino
6th President of the Philippines
Delivered on April 17, 1948 at the Council of State Room, Executive Office
Building, Malacaang Palace, Manila

In memory of our great and illustrious friend who is now lying in state, let us pledge
ourselves to establish better and closer understanding among us, and I beseech you
to manifest more tolerance, goodwill, and love, which we need in this supreme
moment of our history.

Inaugural Address
by Elpidio Quirino
6th President of the Philippines
Delivered on December 30, 1949 at the Luneta Grandstand, Manila
The Republic of the Philippines was born in the shadow of a world war. Nurtured in
democracy and reared in the midst of human anguish, it withstood the crushing
impact of a major catastrophe from which every nation is still recovering to this day.
Despite its infancy, it has played a respected role in the attainment of universal
peace and security as the only guarantee of its continued existence.
It is most significant that, by constitutional mandate, the President and the Vice-
President of the Republic should take their oaths of office at this noon hour on the
anniversary of the martyrdom of the national hero of the Philippines, at the height of
a season dedicated to the Savior of mankind, and on the threshold of a New Year.
The occasion is, therefore, both solemn and joyous, fraught with emotional
undertones and permeated with the spirit of new resolves and fresh undertakings.
In such an atmosphere dominated by sobering thoughts, I invoke the spirit of this
holy season and of this hallowed day and ground to express the fervent hope that
this shall be, for all of us, a day of rebirth and renewal, of reassurance and
reconsecration. Humbly now, in full consciousness of my own limitations, I enter
anew upon the duties of President of the Republic determined to shoulder the
responsibilities of this high office as the instrument of the people's will and the
servant of the public weal.
I place myself and my administration at the service of all the people without
distinction as to creed, class, or station, and pledge my whole effort to the production
of their fundamental rights, the improvement of their livelihood, and the defense of
their free institutions.
I make this pledge in the face of the most critical situations, confident that however
great they may be, they shall not in the end prevail against the sturdy good sense,
high courage, and tested patriotism of our people.
I have faith in the democratic process we have established and in the capacity of our
people to perfect themselves in it. I have faith in their readiness to submit themselves
to the rigorous discipline of civic duty and national unity. I therefore call upon all
elements in the nation to join hands and to close ranks despite the political barriers
that may separate them from one another. I trust that, forswearing the bitterness
which political passion may have recently engendered, every citizen will accept his
share in the common task of building the Republic as a necessary condition of our
national survival.
To all who heed this appeal, I give the solemn assurance that the Government shall
not be wanting in generous appreciation and civic recognition. Sincerity will be met
with an equal measure of sincerity, and voluntary submission to authority will be
matched by a compassionate regard for the requirements of justice.
However, I feel it my painful duty to give stern warning that there shall be no
abdication to the authority of the Government and that any defiance of this authority
will not be tolerated, but shall be met relentlessly with all the forces at our command.
The start of this second quadrennium of our Republic gives us a good occasion to
take stock. It is opportune to review the national picture for the purpose of creative
revision and to indicate what has heen accomplished so as to know what remains to
be done.
We are building a new nation responsive to our people's genius and needs.
Undoubtedly, this genius is for freedom consistent with the satisfaction of the
imperatives of civilized living and security within the setting given us by a generous
Almighty. This means a recognition of possibilities and limitations. This gives
allowance for wholesome doubt about our perfectibility and a degree of stubborn
hopefulness regarding our capacity to achieve our goal.
In the first four years of our Republic we have achieved a measure of recovery and
rebuilding originally expected in ten years. In spite of limited finances, we have
discharged to a goodly extent our obligations to those who defended the country and
worked loyally for it ill the period of peril. We have merited the assistance of America,
by whose side we fought to preserve our common cherished institutioll and way of
life. With our resources, we have initiated a bold progralll of economic reconstruction
and development, the fruits of which will accrue to generations after us. We have
established an honored name in the councils of free peoples and have become
identified not only with freedom and democracy but with their increasing extension to
peoples long handicapped by foreign domination. Most important of all, we have
established a Republic that commands respect and loyalty at home and inspires
admiration abroad. We could not have done all these if we did not have spiritual
strength, the basic intelligence, tht moral and material resources, and, above all, the
will which overcome aII obstacles.
We want our people to enjoy an increasing measure of social justice and
amelioration of livelihood. This is not a matter solely of administration from above; it
is a joint enterprise in which all of us work and help administrators and citizens,
managers and workers, traders and toilers, producers, and consumers. It is a
constant endeavor calculated to achieve the end of every government to secure
the well being and happiness of all the people.
We respect the inviolability of the human person. In our resistance to any totalitarian
aggression from within and from without, the dignity of the human person is the
crucial issue; and we have to be grateful for the heritage of a Christian culture that
provides us the basic anchorage and the invincible armor as we make the stand
against any attempt to reduce men to mere chattel.
Economic development has become the essential condition and prerequisite of our
survival as a free people in a democratic world. For the masses of our people, it
matters little that democracy offers a philosophy superior to that of other systems, but
it does matter greatly to them that democracy establishes economic security, as well
as affirms the dignity of the human persons and secures individual rights.
We count on the goodwill and understanding, even assistance, of our neighbors,
East and West, but we keep our sinews in trim for steady production in the spirit of
self-help. We depend on our schools, our churches, our homes, to teach our young
that the human personally rises to its full dignity when its possessor works and
provides and gives without outward compulsion, and not when he stretches out his
hand, palm upward.
Our conception of freedom includes national discipline guided by the public interest,
which is in constant demand of adjustments for the enjoyment of that freedom. Such
measures as the restriction of firearms, the control of imports, and the regulation of
exchange fall Within the exigencies of our young democracy. Although the reaction
to these measures among our people may be varied and new, their effectivity is not
rigid; we have undergone more onerous expedients which we were able to survive in
the past. Our citizens shall be heard and the application of these measures shall be
relaxed where stability, efficiency, and the common good so demand.
It is clear that we must reorganize our administrative machinery with a view to
securing greater efficiency, the improvement of the public service, and economy of
means and effort in the discharge of the government's responsibilities, in order to
make that machinery more responsive to public need within the limits of our available
resources.
It is clear that we must stabilize the government's finances consistent with our ability
to tap legitimate sources of revenue and the judicious outlay of funds to meet current
and future needs, with open accountability for our obligations at home and abroad.
It is clear that we must constantly watch our economy, detect its weak points,
undertake the corresponding measure to strengthen them, have the courage to
develop our resources that make for increasing sufficiency, conserve the fluid assets
that keep the steady flow of services and tools available only from abroad, and
provide a broadening base of economic security for all.
It is clear that our people, individually and collectively, must keep their minds clear on
the issues that tend to divide and disrupt, and must constantly improve their
appreciation of those values which deserve their lasting allegiance and determine the
stability of their cherished institutions. Our Republic can only be worth defending and
preserving if it inspires the discipline which establishes a reasonable balance
between liberty on one side, and security and responsibility on the other. Our peace
at home and our prestige abroad rest on the vigor of those loyalties which stamp us
as free men whose self-interest encompasses the welfare and happiness of our
fellows here and beyond our borders.
I repeat, our own program of economic development is essentially a program of self-
help. We encourage our neighbors to do the same. We invite them to cooperate with
us in an effort to coordinate the measures for our common full development. We
must pull ourselves out of the treacherous morass of misery and want, and assume a
new dignity in our international relations. We must henceforth discard the old
"superior-inferior" philosophy by honest-to-goodness work of the head and hand.
We share a common fate with our neighbors, and our free institutions will not flourish
in a region of drought and barrenness. We therefore salute the newly-born United
States of Indonesia and the emergence of India as a republic. Since the inauguration
of our own Republic we have rapidly ceased to be an island of freedom and
democracy among the once-called submerged and underprivileged peoples in Asia.
Korea, Burma, Pakistan, and Ceylon have become free. Thus, along with other free
peoples and peoples still to become free, we can join together within the framework
of the United Nations, into a regional association given to the advancement of world
peace and prosperity.
And so, in encouraging and assisting other peoples to be free on the basic principle
of mutuality in the solution of our common social, economic, and cultural problems,
we help to advance our own national interests. In taking this view, we are not guided
by mere geopolitical consideration, though we are in the bosom of the Orient for all
eternity But feeling that this is our proper and immediate field of action where we
must fulfill our own destiny; we can help to advance the interests of the free
democratic world by forestalling the entry of subversive ideas into this rich and
populous region of Southeast Asia and the West Pacific.
We respect the right of our neighbors to choose freely their own system of
government. In our relations with the Chinese people, with whom we have had such
close contacts over many centuries, we shall maintain an open mind giving due heed
to the requirements of our national security and the security of Asia as a whole. The
Japanese people will play an important role in our part of the world, but we expect
them sufficiently to repair the injuries they inflicted in a war of aggression, and we
want to be convinced that they have sufficiently experienced a change of heart which
will induce them not to repeat it but to cooperate instead in keeping our
neighborhood peaceful, free, and prosperous.
The United States of America is still our best friend and we look to her to realize
increasingly that, in this atomic age, her area of safety, and that of mankind as a
whole, have no delimiting frontiers.
Here as elsewhere all over the world today, people live and move in an atmosphere
of anxiety, still passing through a period of extraordinary tension and turbulence.
They are constantly being harassed by multiplicity of fears. If it is not inflation, it is of
depression; and if it is not revolution, it is of invasion. If it is not of complacency and
stagnation, it is of corruption.
It is no comfort to us that in this predicament we are not alone. It serves us naught to
know that in this situation the whole world is kin. But we do not need to feel and be
helpless about it. We must guard against the insidious paralysis of despair. And
certainly, the alternative not apathy. Neither is it bahala na, the fatalism with which an
Oriental justifies the many varieties of escapism and irresponsibility familiar to
Orientals and Occidentals alike. The best answer to fear is to come to grips with it, to
understand it for what it is so that we can take its measure. There is no better
therapeutic against anxiety than purposeful activity to banish its causes.
While this country is ready to defend its liberty and freedom if threatened from
without, we are decidedly against being willfully involved in any war and will take
necessary measure to preserve our people for the constructive ways of peace. We
harbor no evil designs against anyone and we take literally the injunction in our
Constitution to forswear war as an instrument of national policy.
We have, therefore, consistently followed the policy of establishing friendly contacts
with every nation, convinced that in international relations, friendship, goodwill, and
the spirit of helpfulness are not only the most economic and lasting sources of power
and influence but the surest guarantees of security and universal peace.
And so whether it is inflation or depression, rebellion or threat of invasion, economic
controls or cormption, let us address ourselves to them honestly and directly and
exhaust every practical way to conquer them. We cannot leave this job alone to the
President and the administration. We cannot leave this job to a few individuals, to
special interests, and privileged classes. Least of all can we leave this to God alone.
We must, one and all, as individuals and as groups, take it upon ourselves to do our
part. Together we must and can spread a contagion of courage and victory to the
remotest hamlet and the humblest citizen of this country each by undertaking the
duty nearest to him.
This country will survive, not because I say so, but because our people have proved
it in the past, are proving it now, and will prove it in the difficult years to come. It is
part of our common heritage and experience, which no one can take away, that we
are above fear whcn we are so absorbed in our positive task that we have no time for
feal itself. As a people, we have gone through the worst economic crise, and
vicissitudes in the past, but always we have been able to pool th moral and material
resources necessary to survival. We cannot do les' today and tomorrow. The next
four years will be years of positive work and accomplishments.
I have no ambition but to see that this urge is fulfilled in the interest of our people.
Our country, for which our heroes and martyrs gave their richest blood, deserves the
best that we, who are its servants to day, can give in lasting constructive
performance. Our program of development and social amelioration may seem bold
and ambitious; but why should we attempt anything less? I am determined and will
not be swerved by personal or partisan considerations from any determination to see
this program through.
Our people should not expect me to do anything but what is right, and I expect
everyone to support me to the limit in this resolve. I shall give constant battle to graft
and corruption and will not tolerate irregularities of any sort under whatever name.
Buying one's way to any political preference, economic advantage, or social
distinction will not be allowed. I want this point understood from the beginning so that
individuals and party men who have other ideas and expectations will not be
disappointed. Our country and people must believe in me and support me in this
resolve, if I am to achieve any success in this direction.
I mean fully to fulfill my sworn duties as laid down by the Constitution. I will deal justly
with every man and will welcome anyone with legitimate grievance to submit his
complaints, if his rights are trampled upon. I am not committed to protect the rights of
certain groups as against those of others, nor to serve the special interests of
anybody. Right and justice and the supreme interest of this country, as the Almighty
has given me to understand them, shall be my one guide.
My countrymen, you elected me because you want me to serve the country well.
Help me always to do so. Give me your light when my way is dark. Give me strength
when you see me weaken. Give me courage always to do the right thing. Help me
build for our people a new reputation for honesty and fair dealing. Help me establish
a new integrity on our thinking, in our words, in our deeds. Let us be men, as the best
of our breed have tried to be. Let us be true to ourselves so that we cannot be false
to any man or any people. Then we can know he right thing, and I, as your servant,
can do the right thing for all the odd to judge.
I have taken the oath of office with courage and confidence, because I know that the
well-springs of our national strength are abundant and inexhaustible. Our history is
the history of a growing and expanding nation; a nation that for 400 years has kept
green its love of IIherty and ever fresh its desire for progress. I stake the success of
my administration upon that record, and I ask you to draw with me upon he copious
reserves of energy and patriotism which have sustained our nation through every
crisis in its history.
I beseech you to vouchsafe full faith and cooperation in this hour f solemn investiture
and patriotic commemoration.

Inaugural Address
by Ramon Magsaysay
7th President of the Philippines
Delivered on December 30, 1953 at the Luneta Grandstand, Manila
My Countrymen:

You have tailed upon me to assume the highest office within our gift. I accept the
trust humbly and gratefully. My sole determination is to be President for the people.
The office of the President is the highest in the land. It can be the humblest also, if
we regard it as we must in the light of basic democratic principles. The first of
these principles is the declaration of the Constitution that "sovereignty resides in the
people and all government authority emanates from them." This simply means that
all of us in public office are but servants of the people.
As I see it, your mandate in the past election was not a license for the selfish
enjoyment of power by any man or group of men. On the contrary, it was an
endorsement of the principle at times forgotten that the general welfare is the
only justification for the exercise of governmental power and authority.
Your mandate was a clear and urgent command to establish for our people a
government based upon honesty and morality; a government sensitive to your
needs, dedicated to your best interests, and inspired by our highest ideals of man's
liberty.
We have a glorious past. Now we must build a future worthy of that past.
It is significant that we begin on this day and on this ground hallowed by the supreme
sacrifice of Jose Rizal. We can find no finer example of dedication to country to light
our way.
All too often, however, we speak of Rizal and of Del Pilar, Bonifacio, Mabini, and
our host of heroes as if their work were done, as if today their spirit had ceased to
have any meaning or value to our people. The faith is that we need their spirit now
more than ever. We need it to complete the work which they began.
We need men of integrity and faith like Rizal and Del Pilar; men of action like
Bonifacio; men of inflexible patriotism like Mabini. We need their zeal, their self-
reliance, their capacity for work, their devotion to service, their ability to lose
themselves in the common cause of building a nation.
I will have such men. From this day, the members of my administration, beginning
with myself, shall cease to belong to our parties, to our families, even to ourselves.
We shall belong only to the people.
In the administration of public affairs, all men entrusted with authority must adhere
firmly to the ideals and principles of the Constitution.
I will render and demand uncompromising loyalty to the basic tenet of our
Constitution; that you, the people, are sovereign. The rule of government must be
service to you.
Accordingly, I pledge my administration to your service. I pledge that we shall extend
the protection of the law to everyone, fairly and impartially to the rich and the poor,
the learned and the unlettered recognizing no party but the nation, no family but the
great family of our race, no interest save the common welfare.
The Bill of Rights shall be for me and the members of my administration, a bill of
duties. We shall be guardians of the freedom and dignity of the individual.
More than this, we shall strive to give meaning and substance to the liberties
guaranteed by our Constitution by helping our citizens to attain the economic well-
being so essential to the enjoyment of civil and political rights.
The separation of powers ordained by our Constitution as an effective safeguard
against tyranny shall be preserved zealously. Mutual respect for the rights and
prerogative of each of the three great departments of government must be observed.
The legislative power vested by the Constitution in the elected representatives of the
people will, I trust, operate vigorously to prosecute our common program of honest,
efficient and constructive government. As Executive, I look forward to intimate
cooperation with the members of Congress, particularly with those statesmen who
have stood guard over the rights and liberties of our people.
The independence of the judiciary shall be strengthened. Our courts must be freed
from political and other baneful influences, so that they may function with the same
integrity and impartially which have made our Supreme Court the fortress of law and
justice.
Heretofore, social justice has raised fervent but frustrated hopes in the hearts of our
less fortunate citizens. We must not permit social justice to be an empty phrase in
our Constitution. We must bring it to life for all.
In consonance with this purpose, my administration shall take positive, energetic
measures to improve the living conditions of our fellow citizens in the barrios and
neglected rural areas and of laborer in our urban and industrial centers.
The land tenure system of our country shall be reexamined, to purge it of injustice
and oppression.
"Land for the landless" shall be more than just a catch-phrase. We will translate it
into actuality. We will clear and open for settlement our vast and fertile public lands
which, under the coaxing of willin hearts and industrious hands, are waiting to yield
substance to millions of our countrymen.
Democracy becomes meaningless if it fails to satisfy the primary needs of the
common man, if it cannot give him freedom from fear and freedom from want. His
happiness and security are the only foundations on which a strong republic can be
built. His happiness and security shall be foremost among the goals of my
administration.
We must develop the national economy so that it may better satisfy the material
needs of our people. The benefits of any economic or industrial development
program shall be channeled first to our common people, so that their living standards
shall be raised.
While I shall give priority to our domestic problems, my administration will not neglect
our international responsibilities. We cannot escape the fact that, today, the destinies
of nations are closely linked. It is in this spirit that we regard the goodwill and
assistance extended to us through the various programs of international economic
cooperation with the more developed nations, chiefly the United States. Considering
this aid to be primarily a means of speeding up our progress toward self-reliance, I
pledge that every peso worth of assistance will be spent honestly and to the best
advantage.
It is to our common interest that this Republic, a monument to mutual goodwill and
common labor, should prove to the world the vitality of the democracy by which we
live.
We shall continue to cooperate with the United Nations in seeking collective security
and a just world peace.
No effect will be spared, no element of cooperation will be withheld in strengthening
and safeguarding our physical security. We are prepared to live up to all our
obligations under our Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States. To our Asian
brothers, we send our fraternal greetings. They are beset by problems of the same
nature and complexity as those that confront us. We invite them to share our
experience in finding solutions to those problems through democratic means. It is my
hope that we can exchange experiences and information on methods that each of us
has found most effectrve in subduing illiteracy, poverty, disease, under-productivity,
and other common evils which have afflicted our countries of past generations.
The problems and opportunities ahead of us set the measure of the effort we must
exert in the years to come. We must have unity to solve our problems, cooperation to
exploit our opportunities. I urge you to forego partisan differences whenever the
national interest clearly demands united action. We must not be distracted from our
work. We have no time for petty strife.
Certainly we cannot temporize with armed dissidence. I therefore call upon the
remnants of the Huk uprising still hiding in the hills to lay down their arms and
rejoin the rest of the nation in the ways of peace. I say to the rank and file of the
Huks who have been misled by the lies of the Kremlin that they can win the
economic security and social justice they desire only within the framework of our
democracy. We shall welcome back the truly repentant with understanding and with
sympathy.
But, to the leaders of the Communist conspiracy who would deliver this country and
its people to a foreign power, this I say: I shall use all the forces at my command to
the end that the sovereign authority of this government shall be respected and
maintained. There can be no compromise with disloyalty.
I have been warned that too much is expected of this administration, that our people
expect the impossible. For this young and vigorous nation of ours, nothing is really
impossible!
Let us have faith in ourselves, the same faith that fired the heroic generation of
revolution. They waged and won their struggle with nothing but bolos in their hands
and courage in their hearts. Without political training and experience, they wrote a
constitution compatable with the best, and established the first republic in Asia. Our
own generation was told by doubters and enemies that we would never have
independence from the United States. We live today under a free and sovereign
Republic. Our faith was fulfilled.
Today, we are told anew that it is impossible to do what must be done. But our
people, sustained by God, under whose protection we have placed our destiny and
happiness, and strengthened by an abid ing faith in His goodness and mercy our
people, united and free shall shape a future worthy of our noble heritage if we but
act; act together; act wisely; act with courage; and act unselfishly, in a spirit of
patriotic dedication.

Inaugural Remarks after the demise of President Ramon Magsaysay

by Carlos P. Garcia
The unexpected and most unfortunate demise of Pres. Ramon Magsaysay has
brought grief not only to our country but to the nllre free world. President Magsaysay,
since his assumption to the highest office of the land, had been an uncompromising
champion of democracy in Asia. Thus, his death is definitely a loss to all freedom-
loving people everywhere.
In this our moment of supreme national bereavement, I wish to ask our people to
share with me the heavy burden which has been laced upon my shoulders by the
Supreme Law-Giver who presides over the destinies of men and nations. In asking
for the support and operation of the Filipino people, I appeal for sobriety, calmness,
and dication in the fulfillment of our common duty to God and country, for the great
ideals for which President Magsaysay lived and died.
I realize only too well that the position of president of the Philippines carries with it
tremendous responsibilities. Nevertheless, with the aid of Divine Providence, I
accept, in all humility, this difficult task, on taking my oath of office. With abiding faith
in our people, I now that in a moment of crisis like this, they always rise equal to the
situation. In the days that lie ahead, I will welcome honest and contructive criticism if
it will redound to the public good. It shall be my solemn duty to carry on the great
political program for which President Magsaysay and the Nacionalista Party have
given heir all and their best.
I ask you then, fellow countrymen, to lay aside all rancour and discord and help me
carry on the task of preserving our land for God, democracy, liberty, and justice.

8th President of the Philippines

Delivered on March 18, 1957 at the Council of State Room, Executive Office
Building, Malacaang Palace, Manila

inaugural Address
by Carlos P. Garcia
8th President of the Philippines
Delivered on December 30, 1957 at the Luneta Grandstand, Manila
My fellow Countrymen:

In the sober exercise of your constitutional prerogative as a free people, you have
elected me President of the Philippines. With humility and deep gratitude, I accept
your mandate, and God helping, I shall not fail you.
With my oath of office goes my solemn pledge of dedicated service to the nation.
Invoking the gUidance of Divine Providence and the memory of my illustrious
predecessors, I take upon myself the tremendous responsibilities of national
leadership with the courage and fervor inspired by the warm national unity in
dedication and devotion to country. But I must confess, in all candor, that the best
and the utmost I can give in the service of the people will avail us little, unless I
receive the understanding, faith, and support of my countrymen. In every momentous
time of our history our people have given their full measure of support to our leaders.
As I assume national leadership in answer to your summons on a day consecrated
by the supreme sacrifice of Rizal, I pray for one gift the heart of the Filipino
people. In return I give you mine.
In the spirit, therefore, of that covenant of the hearts between the people and their
chosen leader, I face the future aglow with hope and confidence. Together we will
meet our common problems and difficulties. With the singleness of purpose, together
we will overcome them.
As a people, we prize highly the moral and spiritual values of life. But the realities of
the moment have made us more preoccupied with economic problems chiefly
concerning the material values of national life.
It is a strange paradox that while the basic articles in our fundamental economy are
rice and fish, we are not self-sufficient in both from time immemorial. We have gone
into extensive plans and schemes In industrialization, foreign exchange and similar
matters, but we have not given sufficient thought or incentives, nor have we done
enough to provide for the fundamental need of national life foodstuff. In the midst
of abundant natural resources for rice culture and fish production, we still have to
import from abroad a substantial part of the supply to meet these absolute and
irreducible necessities of life. Thus, in case of a blockade as dramatically shown in
the last World War, this can be a serious weakness in our national defense. What
happened in the last World War with tragic consequences to our army and our
people should spur us to the high resolve never again to neglect this essential side of
our economy.
It is, therefore, imperative that we lose no time and spare no effort in reorienting our
national economic policies toward doing first things first. We must first produce here,
by and for ourselves, enough to provide for the fundamental needs of life food,
shelter and clothing. The country now has the natural resources, the means and the
modern know-how to do it. We only lack the will to do it. Let us summon then from
the spiritual reservoir of the nation the collective will and determination to make our
country self-sufficient in foodstuff, shelter, and clothing. Our freedom must be
nourished from the weafth of our own soil and by the labor of our own manhood. This
is the key policy of this administration in the field of economics. To this I give my
heart and hand.
There has developed of late some apprehension arising out of the austerity
measures adopted by the administration to arrest further deterioration of our
international reserves. I hasten to tell the nation that while the present financial
situation calls for sober and realistic reappraisal of our policies and actions, there is
no real cause for alarm. There has been no dissipation of our dollar reserves. But in
our overeagerness and enthusiasm to push forward our industrialization program, we
transgressed the ethernal laws of measures and proportion. As a retribution, reality
now constrains us to restore the correct proportion between dollar reserves and
industrialization, and also between these reserves and bond issues and other form of
public borrowing. To achieve this end, it behooves us to submit temporarily to
measures of austerity, self-discipline, and self-denial. We have to sacrifice for the
larger good of the greatest number. Nonetheless, we must continue our
industrialization program with daring courage. Let us not forget, however, that
discretion is still the better part of valor. Our mistakes should not make us weaker in
spirit. Rather, recognition of these should inspire us to strengthen our dedication and
with the proper rectifications made, we shall carry on stronger in faith and
confidence, and with clearer vision.
In light of our experience, it has been dramatically pointed out that a well-balanced
agro-industrial economy is the best for the country. Rice is still the center of gravity of
our agricultural economy, as steel is of industrial economy. On these two basic
factors, we build our agroindustrial economy. We have to step up the tempo of
establishing the agricultural industries to utilize with th least delay the abundant
natural resources which a bountiful Divine Providence has endowed us. We have the
land, the climate and other favorable natural conditions to produce ramie, cotton and
other fibers to feed our textiles industries with raw materials. We have the land and
natural conditions to produce raw rubber to provide a steady supply of raw materials
to our rubber and tire industries that minister to a nation on wheels. We have
abundant flora and fauna for supplying the materials of drug and chemical industries.
And now what resources have we for our industrial economy? We have some of the
world's biggest iron deposits and abundant coal and manganese to provide the raw
materials for the basic steel industry rightly called the mother of 101 other industries.
To complement this, it is definitely known that the bosom of our Earth contains
unlimited mineral oil deposits to turn the wheels of industry and the propellers of
prosperity. We have the natural hydroelectric resources which can be harnessed, as
a number of them already are, to supply cheap industrial power. The power
harnessing program will be kept up with increasing momentum to realize our desire
for rural electrification.
With all these elements at our command and with our youth rapidly acquiring the
needed industrial technology and with the increasing demand for machinery and
other steel products for our industrialization, it has become imperative for us to build
soonest the steel industry. Out of the womb of the steel industry, we hope to
generate here the machinery for the entire Philippine agroindustrial structure. Out of
steel, we will create the sinews of the nation.
But, fellow countrymen, iron is only one of our principal mineral resources. We have
practically all minerals used by the present civilization, ferrous, non-ferrous, and
mineral oils. The mining industry, therefore, has the potentiality of becoming the
premier dollar-earning industry of the Philippines. This administration commits itself
to giving all possible incentives and support to private enterprise which may invest
and work to make mining the biggest of industries. The broader motivating spirit of
modern Filipino industrialists is no longer money profit first, but rather the joy of
creativeness and the exultation of the soul derived from the consciousness of having
contributed to human happiness. May this spirit forever grow!
This administration is fully aware of the difficulties in financing our ambitious
industrialization program. We have realized that our dollar reserves can no longer
continue with the double role of providing for the normal requirements of our foreign
trade and the tremendous financing of our industrial and economic development. The
time has come to provide separate development funds to attend exclusively to the
economic development and release our international reserves of this burden. I am
fully convinced that we can generate development funds from sources, other than
taxes and the proceeds of our present exports. Development loans can be liqUidated
by the same industries they are intended to sustain.
An essential aspect of the program rhave outlined, if we are to achieve optimum
results, is the role of scientific and industrial research. No industry of any importance
in the world today can afford to exist without it. That is our serious deficiency that we
must immediately correct through collaboration of government and private enterprise.
My predecessor, the late President Magsaysay, opened not only the halls but the
very heart of Malacaang to the people. To the common man, especially the needy,
the forsaken and the victims of injustice, Malacaang symbolizes hope, faith, and
justice. Under my administration, Malacaang will remain such a symbol. This
Government will carry on dispensing social justice and protecting human rights. I
expect every department to share in the great task of fortifying the faith of our people
in their Government by bringing the Government closer to the people in terms of
service and love.
This administration will continue the vigorous prosecution of the social amelioration
program. We give a higher premium to this social service program to demonstrate to
our masses that in freedom and by democratic processes we can achieve peace,
prosperity, and happiness. The Social Security Act, for instance, which gives to non-
government wage earners insurance protection against sickness, disability, old age,
death, and unemployment, will be fully implemented.
Moreover, a large portion of the funds which this Act will generate will be channeled
to selected sound investments to promote the general well-being, thus making the
people investors and participants in the country's economic destiny. The individual
economic security assured to the beneficiaries of this Act will buttress the collective
economic security of the nation. The Social Security System is protection to labor
and provision to capital.
The Government will continue its low-cost housing projects and its land redistribution
and resettlement program. We shall exert greater effort so that more of our poor will
eventually acquire homes and lands that they can call their very own. Home-and-
landowning citizens possess not only a sense of stability and contentment but also
the practical patriotism to live for, and if necessary, die for home and country. For
upon the face of the patriot must have shone first the firelight of home.
We have a high stake in the health, strength, and vitality of our people. So we shall
pursue our health development activities especially in the barrios and other rural
areas. Only a Vigorous, healthy, educated and aspiring people can build a strong
and enduring Republic.
I once more reaffirm the determination of this administration to preserve and
enhance our historic relations of friendship with the United States based on equality,
mutuality of interest, and community uf ideals. Tested in the crucible of war no less
than in the sacrifices for peace, our partnership with the noble American people will
long live vibrant in the hearts of our two peoples rather than in the pages of our
treaties. Of course, it would be naive to assume that no differences will ever exist
between the two peoples. Differences do exist now and others may arise in the
future. But in a spirit of fellowship and mutual understanding there can be none that
cannot be adjusted on the basis of justice and equality to the satisfaction of each
other's interest.
In the face of grave threats to world peace and security, it is our solemn duty to strive
with other free countries for strengthening the United Nations and make it a more
effective instrumentality for peace. We have entered into a number of agreements
with America, including a mutual defense treaty, and have associated with freedom-
loving states in the SEATO in an effort to meet those threats on a regional level. We
know that the United States, as the recognized leader of the free world, is resolved
with all her might and resources to maintain peace and freedom and democracy. The
Philippines will discharge her humble share in the indivisible responsibility of
preserving world peace and freedom. I hope that our Western allies in the SEATO
will see eye to eye with us on the need for strengthening further the fabric of this
regional defense organization and the capability of their Asian allies to meet
subversion or open aggression.
We will preserve our friendship with Spain and the Latin-American Republics with
whom we are tied by indissoluble cultural; spiritual, and historical bonds. To our
Asian friends, we reiterate the good neighbor policy which we wish would prove
mutually fruitful and beneficial.
In this nuclear age, we must realistically admit that the defense of small countries like
ours, to be effective at all, must be linked with the common defense of the free world.
Nevertheless, the primary responsibility for the defense and security of our country
and territorial integrity is still ours. It behooves us, therefore, to bring up to modern
standards, within the limits of our resources and, we hope, with the assistance of our
friends and allies, the major services of our defense organization. Only those can
remain free who are worthy of it. Freedom must be constantly deserved. Our heroic
heritage consecrated by the blood and sacrifices of our heroes and martyrs assures
me that the program for the modernization of our defenses will receive your warmest
support. On this momentous day, let me pay warm tribute to the Filipino soldier
whose bravery and patriotism established firmly the Philippine Republic upon the
rock of national unity and liberty.
But deeper and more enduring than our preparations for defense is our hope and
desire for world peace a just, honorable and lasting peace. The Philippines stands
squarely behind every sincere plea and effort for a stop to the armaments race that is
leading the nations of the world to material and moral bankruptcy. World peace
based on a "balance of terror" maintained by a relentless contest in the development
of increasingly more devastating nuclear weapons is a danger-fraught situation only
one spark away from a cataclysmic explosion leading inevitably to one end the
total detruction of civilization. This administration will therefore tirelessly support any
sincere effort toward the removal of all means to wage war through total
disarmament of all nations and ultimately toward the removal of all causes of war by
channeling the tremendous resources now spent for destructive purposes to fighting
misery, poverty, disease, and criminality the world over and bring about the climate
and moral regeneration for world peace.
The education of the youth, being essential to the progress of the nation and to the
preservation of the freedom we have won, will receive increasing attention from the
administration. I believe in preparing the youth of the land intellectually and morally
for the responsibilities and leadership they have to assume later in life. Since our
economic development is the center of our common effort at this juncture of our
national life, the education of our youth should henceforth lay emphasis on science,
industrial, and agricultural technology.
But with all our preoccupation with the national well-being, we cannot afford to
neglect the moral and spiritual aspects of our national life. Together with the
increasing material abundance, we need to strengthen our moral fiber. Our spiritual
virtues must be constantly fortified. A nation does not live by bread alone, and no
profit is gained in strengthening its economy if in doing so it loses its soul. The ruins
of once mighty empires now buried under the dust of oblivion constantly remind us
that material progress, unless based on a foundation of morality, eventually destroys
itself. It is my firm conviction that the character of the nation anchored on the Rock of
Ages is still our best answer to the challenge of Communistic ideology.
In this connection, I serve notice that the war against graft and corruption will
continue with unabated zeal, without fear or favor. Dishonesty and inefficiency in
public service will be dealt with firmly but justly. By the same token, honesty, and
efficiency should be rewarded generously. In dealing with these things, I intend to
use preventive measures to minimize, not abolish, punitive measures.
These are what I envision for our country during the next four years. For their
realization, I invoke once again the united cooperation and support of the Filipino
people. Again, I reverently invoke the aid of the Divine Creator, Infinite Fountain of all
blessings, that we may have unity where we have been divided, that we may have
faith and courage where we have faltered and weakened, that we may be given light
and vision where we have walked in darkness, that we may have love where we
have been selfish, and that we may achieve lasting peace, prosperity, and happiness
for the people.
Inaugural Address
by Diosdado Macapagal
9th President of the Philippines
Delivered on December 30, 1961 at the Quirino Grandstand, Manila

"Our Mission"

On this day, December 30, our national hero Jose Rizal gave his life on this hallowed
ground the ideal manifestation of love of country and dedication to the service of
our people. It was therefore fitting that the framers of our Constitution should decree
that the highest official of the land shall be called upon to assume office on this
historical occasion, With deep humility, I accept the nation's call to duty.
Bound by the oath I have just taken, I am resolved that I shall be the president not
only of the members of my party but of all political groups; I shall be president not
only of the rich but more so of the poor and I shall be president not only of one sector
but of all the people.
The primary function of the president is not to dispense favors but to dispense
justice. The presidential oath of office contains the special pledge to "do justice to
every man." These shall not remain empty words, for with God's help, I shall do
justice to every citizen, no matter how exalted or how humble may be his station in
life.
As we open a new era in the life of our nation, let us measure the tasks before us
and set forth our goals. Our aims are twofold: first, to solve the immediate problems
of the present and, second, to build materially and spiritually for the future.
Our first mission is the solution of the problem of corruption. We assume leadership
at a time when our nation is in the throes of a moral degeneration unprecedented in
our national history. Never within the span of human memory has gralt peflmeated
every level of government. The solution of this problem shall call for the exercise of
the tremendous persuasive power of the presidency. I shall consider it, therefore, my
duty to set a personal example in honesty and uprightness. We must prove that ours
is not a nation of hopeless grafters but a race of good and decent men and women.
I intend to do more than this. Among the appropriate measure., I shall take to insure
the eradication of this social cancer is to assum moral and political responsibility for
the general state of public moral ity in the country.
Our second mission is to attain self-sufficiency in the staple food of our people,
namely, rice and corn. The elemental needs of every people are food, clothing, and
shelter. We shall give impetus to indus tries that will provide clothing for our
population at reasonable prices In collaboration wi th private enterprise, we shall
invigorate the n tional housing program and devote particular attention to proper
hous ing for our countrymen who earn the lowest income and the indigents who live
under subhuman conditions.
While attending to the people's need for adequate clothing and shelter, the urgent
emphasis shall be on their need for staple food With the cooperation of Congress, we
shall launch and implement ,I rice and corn program that shall bring about sufficiency
in the produ tion of these cereals and make them available at prices within the reach
of the masses.
The basic national problem is the poverty of the masses. Our third mission, therefore,
is the creation of conditions that will provide more income for our people income
for those who have none, and more income for those whose earnings are inadequate
for their elemental needs. Millions of our people are unemployed and millions more
are underemployed. We must rectify this situation to help our people at tain a higher
level of living and create the domestic buying power that can help generate
prosperity. Unless solved in time, this problem will worsen to the point of disaster in
view of our population explosion.
The permanent solution to this problem is the rapid and sound utilization of our vast
and rich natural resources in order to create opportunities for employment. We
believe that the effective accomplish. ment of this task should be left to the citizens
themselves, that is, to private enterprise. But the government can and should help.
Our Administration shall extend this help. Within the maximum financial capacity of
the government, we shall initiate and carry out a program to help solve
unemployment and underemployment through massive productive and labor-
intensive projects calculated to create multiple job opportunities while at the same
time increasing the production, productivity and wealth of the land.
Our fourth mission is to launch a bold but well-formulated socio-economic program
that shall place the country on the road to prosperity for all our people. I shall present
this program in my first State of the Nation message to Congress next month for the
consideration and support of our lawmaking body. In essence, the program will call
for a return to free and private enterprise. The program will also aim at propelling the
nation along the path of progress, first through the dynamic development of our
resources under a system of free and private enterprise, and, second, by the
implementation of a social program for the masses under the direction of the
government. I strongly believe in placing the burden of economic development in the
hands of private entrepreneurs with the least government interference, while making
the government assume the full responsibility for implementing the social and public
welfare program.
I believe in private enterprise because I have faith in the Filipino. I am convinced that
if his future is placed in his own hands and conditions are created in which he may
seek his prosperity and carve his own destiny with his integrity, talent, industry
and sense of sacrifice he shall surmount attendant difficulties, husband the natural
bounty that God has bestowed for his well-being, effectively provide for his needs,
and transform our country at an early time into a land of abundance not only for a
favored few but for each and every Filipino.
While our economic problems are integrated in character, we must be concerned
with the plight of the common man as an imperative of justice. We must help bridge
the wide gap between the poor man and the man of wealth, not by pulling down the
rich to his level as communism desires, but by raising the poor up toward the more
abundant life. This is democracy's supreme endeavor. I shall, therefore, from this day
onward vigorously exert all efforts to increase the productivity of the farmer and the
laborer, to teach the common man scientific methods to lighten his burdens, to give
land to the landless and in time, to place within his means the essential commodities
for a decent living.
It is not our only task to solve the immediate problems of the present and build
materially for the future. The structure of the Republic must be built not only upon
material but more upon spiritual foundations. Our fifth mission, therefore, is to
establish the practices and the example that will strengthen the moral fiber of our
nation and reintroduce those values that would invigorate our democracy. This we
shall seek through fonnal modes of reform, through enforcement of statutes and,
whenever feasible, through the power of example. I shall accordingly endeavor to set
the tone not only for integrity but also for simple living, hard work, and dedication to
the national well being.
This then, in synthesis, is our mission, the trust that has been placed in our hands by
our people. We are called upon to attend to all functions of government, including
foreign relations in which we shall vigorously discharge our part in the struggle
against communism and strive to raise the prestige of the Republic before the family
of nations. While ministering to all the traditional public services, it is in the
accomplishment of these five missions that we must place stress and primary
attention, for their solution will facilitate the effective aministration of all the essential
public services the government is duty bound to maintain.
It is incorrect to say that we are out to solve all the problems of the nation. No
president can do that. Nation-building is an exacting and endless endeavor. No
president can build the whole edifice of a nation. All that he is called upon to do, is to
add a fine stone to that edifice, so that those who shall come after him may add other
fine stones that will go for a strong and enduring structure. I stress anew that the
stone that we are assigned to contribute to the edifice of a greater Philippines is, first,
to attend to such short-range problems as sufficiency in the staple food of the people,
and more employment, and second, to undertake a long-range task of moral
renaissance and the implementation of a socioeconomic blueprint which, although
not immediately achieving prosperity, will lead to that prosperity for all our people.
I believe that this is a mission formidable enough for any president.
It is an endeavor that calls for the utmost use of sound judgment, energy and, above
all, patriotism, which is demanded of all of us. It addresses itself to the leaders of the
three great branches of our government. It requires, on the part of all, a
transfiguration of attitude from political partisanship to statesmanship. In the
deliberations of to Congress on the proclamation of the president and the vice
president, the leaders and members of Congress demonstrated their capacity to rise
above partisan politics and proved themselves equal to the challenge of patriotism. I
express the hope that this congressional performance was not a mere involuntary
recognition of an undeniable political fact, but a willful recognition of the need of
setting aside political partisanship in this time of national crisis in the interest of
bipartisan collaboration in the common task of providing, in the least time possible, a
life of decency and prosperity for our people.
Above all, this mission requires the support of our people. No program can succeed
without popular sustenance. We shall need that faith and that support demonstrated
by our people in our election against appalling odds. The beneficent effects of some
of the concrete steps that we shall take may not be immediately evident; what may,
in fact, be instantly visible will be adverse but transitory repercussions that in time will
clear the way for the final and favorable outcome. In those interludes of anxiety, we
shall need the full trust and confidence of our people; and we assure now that we
shall deserve that trust and confidence because in all our actions we shall never
deviate from the course of integrity, sincerity, and devotion to the welfare of the
nation.
In the past electoral combat, our people showed the strength of our democracy in
this part of the world by bringing about a peaceful change of administration through
the ballot and not through the bullet. Simultaneously, democracy displayed its
splendor by showing that under its aegis a poor man who sprang from the humblest
origin and who has not attained a state of riches can rise to the presidency of the
Republic. I, whom the sovereign will in a democracy has chosen as the means for
the exhibition of the reality of its virtue of offering equal opportunity to the rich and the
poor alike, am now called upon to prove that such a gift of opportunity to our humble
citizenry shall not be in vain. With God's grace and the support of all citizens of good
will and good faith, and of our common people in particular, I pray with all my heart
and soul that I shall not fail in my trust.

First Inaugural Address

by Ferdinand Marcos

10th President of the Philippines

Delivered on December 30, 1965 at the Quirino Grandstand, Manila

Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. Vice President, My Speaker, My Countrymen:

By your mandate, through the grace of the Almighty, I stand here today in the
traditional ritual; of the assumption of the Presidency.
By your mandate, once again you have demonstrated the vitality of our democracy
by the peaceful transference of governmental authority.
It is but fitting and proper that this traditional ritual be undertaken on this sacred
ground. For sixty- nine years ago today, a young patriot and prophet of our race fell
upon his beloved soil. He fell from a tyrant's bullet and out of the martyr's blood that
flowed copiously there sprang a new nation.
That nation became the first modern republic in Asia and Africa. It is our nation. We
are proud to point to our country as one stable in an area of stability; where ballots,
not bullets, decide the fate and parties.
Thus Kawit and Malolos are celebrated in our history as acts of national greatness.
Why national greatness? Because, armed with nothing but raw courage and
passionate intelligence and patriotism, our predecessors built the noble edifice of the
First Asian Republic.
With the same reverence do we consider Bataan, Corregidor and the Philippine
resistance movement.
Today the challenge is less dramatic but no less urgent. We must repeat the feat of
our forebears in a more commonplace sphere, away from the bloody turmoil of heroic
adventure by hastening our social and economic transformation. For today, the
Filipino, it seems, has lost his soul, his dignity and his courage.
We have come upon a phase of our history when ideas are only a veneer for greed
and power in public and private affairs, when devotion to duty and dedication to a
public trust are to be weighed at all times against private advantages and personal
gain, and when loyalties can be traded in the open market.
Our people have come to a point of despair. I know this for I have personally met
many of you. I have heard the cries of thousands and clasped hands in brotherhood
with millions of you. I know the face of despair and I know the face of hunger
because I have seen it in our barrios, huts and hovels all over our land.
We have ceased to value order as a social virtue. Law, we have learned successfully
to flaunt. We have become past masters at devising slogans for the sake of
recorders of history but not for those who would live by them in terms of honor and
dignity.
Peace in our time, we declare. But we cannot even guarantee life and limb in our
growing cities. Prosperity for all, we promise. But only a privileged few achieve it,
and, to make the pain obvious, parade their comforts and advantages before the
eyes of an impoverished many. Justice and security are as myths rendered into
elaborate fictions to dramatize our so-called well-being and our happy march to
progress.
But you have rejected all these through a new mandate of leadership. It is a mandate
a change of leadership in this country, and to me, as your President, this mandate is
clear- it is a mandate not merely for change. It is a mandate for greatness.
For indeed we must rise from the depths of ignominy and failure. Our government is
gripped in the iron hand of venality, its treasury is barren, its resources are wasted,
its civil service is slothful and indifferent, its armed forces demoralized and its
councils sterile.
But we shall draw from our rich resources of spiritual strength that flow from this
place of martyrdom.
We are in crisis. You know that the government treasury is empty. Only by severed
selfdenial will there be hope for recovery within the next year.
Our government in the past few months has exhausted all available domestic and
foreign sources of borrowing. Our public financial institutions have been burdened to
the last loanable peso. The lending capacity of the Central Bank has been utilized to
the full. Our national government is indebted to our local governments. There are no
funds available for public works and little of the appropriations for our national
government fro the present fiscal year. Industry is at a stand still. Local
manufacturing firms have been compelled to close or reduce their capacity.
Unemployment has increased. Prices of essential commodities and service remain
unstable. The availability of rice remains uncertain. Very recently the transportation
companies with the sanction of the Public service Commission hiked their fares on
the plea of survival.
I, therefore, first call upon the public servants for self sacrifice. Long have we
depended upon the people. In every crisis, we call upon our citizens to bear the
burden of sacrifice. Now, let the people depend upon us. The economic viability of
the government and of the nation requires immediate retrenchment. Accordingly, we
must install without any delay a policy of rigorous fiscal restraint.
Every form of waste or of conspicuous consumption and extravagance, shall be
condemned s inimical to public welfare.
Frugality with government funds and resources must be developed into a habit at
every level of the government. High public officials must themselves set the example.
One of the most galling of our inherited problems is that of lawlessness. Syndicated
crime has been spawned by smuggling. The democratic rule of law has lost all
meaning and majesty, since all men know that public officials combine with
unscrupulous businessmen to defraud the government and the public with absolute
impunity. The sovereignty of the republic has never before been so derided and
mocked as when the lawless elements, the smuggling syndicates and their
protectors, disavow the power of laws and of our government over them. This is the
climate for criminality. Popular faith in the government deteriorates.
We must, therefore, aim quickly at the establishment of a genuine rule of law. We
shall use the fullest powers of the Presidency to stop smuggling and lawlessness.
I, therefore, call upon all to join hands with me in maintaining the supremacy of the
law. To those who flaunt the law, I say this is my consultation duty and I am resolved
to perform it. But it is not mine alone but yours. For whether Filipino or alien you
survive under the mantle of protection granted by our laws. I am pledged to execute
the law and preserve the constitution of our republic. This I shall do. And if need be I
shall direct the forcible if legal elimination of all lawless elements.
Our social policy will seek to broaden the base of our democracy. Our forefathers
built a democratic republic on an extremely narrow social and economic base. The
task of our generation is to broaden this base continuously. We must spread
opportunities for higher income for all. But we shall encourage investment to insure
progressive production the true answer to our economic ills.
Our people sought a new administration in the expectation of a meaningful change
certainly a bolder, more courageous approach to our problems.
They must have believed that we can provide this new outlook, and perhaps the
passion for excellence the motive force for greatness.
We shall provide this approach, the necessary change of pace, the new outlook that
places large demands and large challenges before the nation. The human person is
unique in creation. Of all organisms, it is he that develops proportion in to the
demands made upon his abilities. That is true of individuals and I hold it to be true of
the nations.
Recently, we have come to realize that economic planning is as essential for
freedom as political planning.
Before today we had squandered the energies and resourcefulness of our people. In
the government we saw a crippling hesitancy and timidity to face the facts of our
times and to boldly provide the initiative.
We cannot afford to rest on the shock of our perceptions, nor on the outrage even of
our painful admission of the facts. We shall have to restore into our life the vitality,
which had been corroded by our complacency.
In international affairs, we shall be guided by the national interests and by the
conscience of our society in response to the dilemma of man in the 20th century.
The Filipino today lives in a world that is increasingly Asians as well as African. Asia
claims one- half of all humanity, and this half lives on a little over one- sixth of the
earth's habitable surface. Africa's millions are also now coming to their own. Recent
events have shown the willingness of our Asian friends to build a bridge to us. We
can do no less than to build a strong foundation at our end.
Today, as never before, we need a new orientation toward Asian; we must intensity
the cultural identity with our ancient kin, and make common cause with them in our
drive toward prosperity and peace. For this we shall require the understanding of
ourselves and of Asia that exceeds acquaintance; we require the kind of knowledge
that can only be gained through unabating scholarship on our histories, cultures,
social forces and aspirations, and through more active interaction with our friends
and neighbors.
What threatens humanity in another area threatens our society as well. We cannot,
therefore, merely contemplate the risks of our century without coming into any
decision on our own. Whenever there is a fight for freedom we cannot remain aloof
from it. But whatever decision we shall have to make shall be determined by our own
interests tempered by the reasonability of that patriotic position in relation to the
international cause.
This nation can be great again. This I have said over and over. This is my article of
faith, and Divine Providence has willed that you and I can now translate this faith into
deeds.
I have repeatedly told you: each generation writes its own history. Our forbears have
written theirs. With fortitude and excellence we must write ours.
We must renew the vision of greatness for our country.
This is a vision of our people rising above the routine to face formidable challenge
and overcome them. It means the rigorous pursuit of excellence.
It is a government that acts as the guardian of the law's majesty, the source of justice
to the weak and solace to the underprivileged, a ready friend and protector of the
common man and a sensitive instrument of his advancement and not captivity.
This vision rejects and discards the inertia of centuries.
It is a vision of the jungles opening up to the farmers' tractor and plow, and the
wilderness claimed for agriculture and the support of human life, the mountains yield
their boundless treasure, rows of factories turning the harvest of our fields into
thorough products.
It is the transformation of the Philippines into a hub of progress of trade and
commerce in Southeast Asia.
It is our people bravely determining our own future. For to make the future is the
supreme act of freedom.
This is a vision that all of you share for our country's future. It is a vision, which can,
and should, engage the energies of the nation. This vision must touch the deeper
layers of national vitality and energy.
We must awakening the hero inherent in every man.
We must harness the wills and the hearts of all our people. We must find the secret
chords, which turn ordinary men into heroes, mediocre fighters into champions.
Not one hero alone do I ask from you but many; nay all, I ask all of you to be
heroes of our nation.
Offering all our efforts to our Creator, we must derive ourselves to be great again.
This is your dream and mine. By your choice you have committed yourselves to it.
Come then, let us march together towards the dream of greatness.

Ferdinand Marcos' Second Inaugural Address

"To Transform the Nation Transform Ourselves"

My Countrymen:

Four years have passed since I took my first oath of office as President of the
Republic of the Philippines. We have traveled far since then. On that year and hour
when I first assumed the presidency, we found a government at the brink of disaster
and collapse, a government that prompted fear before it inspired hope; plagued by
indecision, scorned by self-doubt, its economy despoiled, its treasury plundered, its
last remaining gleam shone to light the way of panic. But panic, we did not. Rather
against the usual raucous cries of the cynics we kept faith, and in that faith
persevered, until the passing of that terrible cloud.
We survived the agony, we passed the test.
The results of those endeavors are landmarks upon our nation now. We have
conquered the first obstacles first.
But our task is not done. For the task of nation-building never ends. We must forge
on.
You have given me the task of leadership by an overwhelming and unprecedented
mandate. I thank you for your trust.
I lead this nation into a new decade, the decade of the seventies-- a decade that is
one of the most crucial in our history as well as in the history of Asia and of the world.
The world seeks to know whether man is indeed impelled by some strange instinct to
self-destruction or whether its sciences on the relationships of men can catch up or
overreach its natural sciences.
In Asia we must now forge a constructive unity and co-exist in purposeful peace, not
on terms that must yet be drawn by a conquering ideology, but on bonds that now
exist. For in the years of this difficult decade, Asia must decide whether in this vast
region of one of the greatest of the world's peoples, it will build a sanctuary, or set up
a continental prison.
Decision cannot much longer be delayed.
In our own land, we have just begun building a nation. We have had to telescope in
four years what other nations achieved in decades.
There is a mortgage of dedication, of discipline, of self-abnegating leadership in the
billowing fields of green sprung from miracle rice; on every road or bridge; on every
school or hospital; on every community project we have built.
For discipline is the other face of achievement.
But I hear the strident cries of protest against self-discipline from the gilded throats of
the privileged and the cynically articulate-- they who have yet to encounter the
implacable face of poverty. I hear the well-meaning cries of the uninformed and the
naive. To them I address this plea. Let them share the burden with the grace and
courage of the poor. Let them find common cause with the people. Too long have we
blamed on one another the ills of this nation. Too long have we wasted our
opportunities by finding fault with each other, as if this would cure our ills and rectify
our errors. Let us now banish recrimination.
There are too many of us who see things as they are and complain. let us rather see
things as they should be and inspire. Let us dream the vision of what could be and
not what might have been,
There are many things we do not want about our world. Let us not just mourn them.
Let us change them.
The time is now. In government I pledge the severest leadership in integrity as well
as discipline. Public officials shall set the vision for simplicity within the bounds of
civility. I ask in turn a response from the privileged. Let us be true to ourselves as the
people of a poor nation struggling to be prosperous; whatever our personal
circumstances, rich or poor, we are all citizens in poverty.
Today with us, self-reliance is no longer an option; it is our fate.
The next few years will lay the basis for a reformation-- a revolutionary reformation of
our international and domestic policies-- of our political, social, legal and economic
systems.
Truly them the decade of the seventies cannot be for the faint of heart and men of
little faith. It is not for the whiners nor for the timid. It demands men and women of
purpose and dedication. It will require new national habits, nothing less than a new
social and official morality. Our society must chastise the profligate rich who waste
the nation's substance-- including its foreign exchange reserves on personal
comforts and luxuries.
The nation's capacity for growth is limited by its foreign exchange earnings. Every
dollar spent on self-indulgence is a dollar taken away from employment, from
welfare, from education-- from the nations social and economic well-being.
The presidency will set the example of this official morality and oblige others to
follow. Any act of extravagance in government will be considered not only an offense
to good morals but also an act punishable with dismissal from office.
With such a new ethic, we will surmount the problems we are confronting now.
We must discard complacency embracing panic; rely on our efforts alone without
rejecting the support of others.
Let not the future observe that being virile in body we multiplied in number, without
increasing in spirit.
I do not demand of you more than I shall demand of myself and of government. So
seek not from government what you cannot find in yourself.
In the solution of our problems, this government will lead.
But, the first duty that confronts us all is how to continue to grow in this nation now a
new heart, a new spirit that springs out of the belief that while our dangers be many,
and our resources few, there is no problem that cannot be surmounted given but the
will and courage.
Let every man be his own master, but let him first, and above all, be his own charge.
It is our destiny to transform this nation; we begin by transforming ourselves first. In
this formidable task, no Filipino, no one in the land will be exempt whatever his
station in life.
Neither wealth nor power will purchase privilege; wealth and power shall not outrage
the conscience of our people.
Trusting in God and in ourselves, we must now pledge, my countrymen, that in
homage to the vision of a race, there shall be in this spot of the universe, a people
strong and free, tracing their ancestral roots to Asia, proud of their oriental heritage
as well as western culture, secure in their achievements, a people daring to match
the iron of the world without losing their essential humanity, eradicating social iniquity
without encouraging anarchy, practicing self-discipline and self-reliance without
ostentation, attaining dignity without losing friends, seeking true independence
without provoking war, embracing freedom even in deprivation.
Thus, we prove to our posterity that our dream was true that even in this land of
impoverished legacy, the wave of the future is not totalitarianism but democracy.

Ferdinand Marcos' Third Inaugural Address

10th President of the Philippines
Delivered on June 30, 1981 at the Quirino Grandstand, Manila

"A New Republic, A New Philippines"

My beloved and fellow Countrymen:

By the generosity of your sovereign mandate, I have been sworn again today before
you, and in the sight of the world to defend, preserve, and promote all that we hold
dear and cherish as a nation.
The greatness of this occasion dwarfs all personal feelings of joy, gratitude and pride
which one feels at this moment. As it has ever been, the entire nation, not one man
alone, is summoned by this historic ceremony to pledge faith in ourselves and in the
future.
In the history of our nation, there are certain moments that fix for us a tide of turning
and redirection, when the nation irrevocably moves into a new course and bravely
ventures into the future.
This is such a turning point.
On a dreary December dawn eighty-five years ago, a young patriot and prophet of
the race fell on this very soil, "a martyr to his illusions" of a new Philippines.
Sixteen years ago, we stood on this same hallowed ground, sharing a vision of
Filipino greatness.
Sixty-nine years separated the martyrdom and the mandate of greatness. More than
two generations of thwarted hopes and disappointed dreams. The blood of the martyr
inspired the Philippine revolution, from which sprung the first Asian Republic,
proclaimed in Kawit, Cavite, on the twelfth of June, 1898. It was a short-lived
Republic, for soon after, recalling three and a half centuries of foreign domination, we
were colonized once again.
Two other republics followed, under which the Philippines was independent but not
truly sovereign, for as history decrees, authentic freedom is self-proclaimed and is
not a gift from alien lands.
The Filipino had lost his dignity, his courage and even his soul. For we existed at the
time in a precarious democracy which advanced the few who were rich and powerful,
and debased the many who were poor. Government was the acolyte of an oligarchy
whose preeminence reached back to the colonial era. This arrangement resulted in a
society that could no longer endure; as social scientists said, we, the Filipinos, were
sitting on top of a "social volcano." But our young martyr and hero had a more
arresting metaphor. A social cancer was all over the land. A major surgery was
inevitable.
We were caught, according to a popular image, between a world that was dead and
a world that was too feeble to be born. We had to accelerate the birth of this New
World a Caesarean operation was required. Either that or perish beneath the
weight of our own failures.
Out of this peril from the jaws of dismemberment and extinction, and from the
heart of the rebellion of the poor was our new Republic.
The first republic was still-born, it had to be born again-in our time.
Today, we proclaimed here the birth of a new Republic, new in structure and
character, and ordained to preside over a new time of ferment and change in our
national life.
Our Republic is new for its fidelity to our historical legacy and its utter repudiation of
the colonial past. In it is the power of the vision which sacrificed the "First Filipino" on
this sacred ground. lime alone can tell the fate and fortune of our new Republic.
Thus has history presented our saga to this generation of Filipinos that we must rise
from the depths of ignominy and failure; and thus is it said that we have an
appointment with destiny.
With the past, we affirm here and now the continuity and integrity of the nation
vouchsafed to us by the sacrifices and struggles of our fathers. But we are also
deeply conscious of the need to break away from the historical ties that have fettered
time and again the pursuit of the national destiny.
All too often in the long sweep of history, we have seen national longing and
aspiration denied at the threshold of fulfillment. We have seen our nation aborted at
birth, tossed in the sway of empires, gripped in inresolution and drift, paralyzed by
disunity and strife, and hostage to chaos and instability. Our national independence
since the beginning has been partly cast in light, partly in shadow.
There are, to be sure, imperfections in our institutions, and as these are run by men,
there are more imperfections still. But I choos to regard these as redeemable; we can
still win the few, the faltering, recalcitrant few, to our government.
Unerringly, the many crises and trials of our Republic have repeatedly pointed to one
recurring theme. The helplessness of govern ment to cope with problems and its
inability to prosecute national purposes and goals. We have suffered less from the
failure of political ideals than from the failure to make democratic government work
and prosper in our land.
From such failure did we pass into the long night of crises and instability that so lately
visited our land, and required the extraordinary recourse to martial law and the
establishment of a crisis government.
Yet from our response to that time of challenge, during an eight-and-a-half year
period that will ever be a distinguished landmark in the history of our nation, we
emerged a nation strengthened and transformed, her faith renewed in the vitality of
her democratic institutions.
Ironic, we say now, is the fact that to arrive at this new beginning for democracy in
our country, We have had to travel the route of authoritarian government, passed
through the very eye of hazard and crisis, and endured the verdict of some men who
despaired that democracy has been irretrievably lost in our land.
The interval of crisis government and reconstruction opened to our nation a new
meaning in the democratic ideal and a new dynamism towards its attainment. We
can never again stand in alienation from one another, in resignation before our
problems, or in humiliation before the world.
Living through the tempest of crises and ferment, we have known the reserves of
national will we possess and the kind of government we are truly capable of
establishing in our country.
Not the poverty of principles, or the decay of ideals, but the simple failure of
government has undermined our confused and tortuous route as a nation. And so it
is that our national rebirth must be founded first and foremost upon the rock of
government.
This is the new beginning that we proclaim today the awakening of our Republic to
the fundamental challenge of governing our land and our people, of ministering to the
cares of public life, and of redeeming every dream and every aspiration that
throughout our national history has fired the hearts and minds of our people.
Fundamentally, this is a beginning and a change not in dreams and aspiration, but in
rededication and reappraisal.
For so long we have been immersed in a confused debate over Ideas and principles,
when our real need was self-discipline.
We have swayed between the ideologies of the times and been entrapped in their
irresoluble contention, when our attention might have been better focused infusing
confidence in our people.
We have wearied of the efficacy of democratic ideals, despaired of their ever taking
root in our country, when our task was to make these ideals find life and sustenance
in our society through our own self-abnegation.
We have been captivated by models and images of development not our own making
without moulding them to the reality of our culture and traditions.
Today, we know better.
This is the vision of rebirth that we hold out to the nation today of a new people and a
new government that will be stable, strong, and capable of leading that way to the
national future.
Our chief concern is to develop and perfect the means whereby the government may
recapture the original purpose of society that of promoting the well-being of all the
members of our community. This is no mere sentiment. This we recognize as a
fundamental duty to be practically and resolutely pursued.
Its essence is less to be seen in what we say of those timeless democratic principles
we swear by freedom, rights, morals, service and the like than in the manner by
which we organize law and government for their realization in our society.
Others may speak of their facile ideas to make change and development in our
country. We shall address ourselves to the organization of government, to the
engineering of change, to the management of our affairs, for this is how,
fundamentally and truly, the most lofty ideals begin to be realized and come to live in
society.
We speak to our farming communities who had long been disenchanted by slogans
promising land and progress and who, at last, under the 1972 program of land reform
now have their own lands to till but also need the continuing assistance of their
government to attain both advancement in their lives and growth in their
communities.
We speak to our working classes who need not only a greate share in the profits of
production but the upgrading of skills and talents by the energetic action of
government so that they may carry out the programs designed to spur the growth of
our economic and social life.
We speak to the entrepreneurs throughout our land who need, besides the
maintenance of our free enterprise system, the practical assistance of government in
the identification of markets, in the development of sources of labor and raw
materials, in the availment of credit facilities, and in the concerted effort to free the
full bounty of our resources as a nation.
We speak to every family to every man, woman and child throughout our land
whose security, well-being and advancement must be directly affected by, and be the
concern of, government in practical programs that will broaden opportunities in
education, health, and welfare and other human needs.
We speak to the citizenry, whose sovereign will and whose rights must exist not only
on paper, but in effective processes that magnify its participation in government and
its enjoyment of its rights.
We speak also to the family of nations and the councils of the world, to which our
national life is so intimately linked today, to which we pledge continued and abiding
cooperation in efforts and programs that will truly advance the peace and progress of
peoples, especially of those with whom we share the cause of reform of the
international system.
We shall not merely dream, we shall achieve.
We are done with pining for all the comforts and rewards of more advanced
societies. We shall now draw up our own plans in accordance with our vision and
culture, to realize within our land our own program of development and progress.
True liberation, such as has been dreamed of since the birth of our nation and has
never left the bosom of our people, is not to be attained save by the enduring union
of government and the people.
It is unthinkable that we should approach this task as partisans to warring interests,
creeds, and ideologies. Our goal is to unite, not divide.
National unity is a covenant between each and every Filipino, olnd between the
leader and his people. The rare honor that you have bestowed on me as your thrice-
elected leader imposes on my person and those closest to me a debt, an
obligation that I cannot shirk and a pledge that I dare not betray. Let history judge me
harshly on this that until every Filipino can say with conviction that he has been
liberated from ignorance, poverty, and disease; until, in sum, he can call his mind,
body, and spirit his own, I shall have failed you.
For this purpose it shall be our task as a people to break, with the force of our will
and our energies, the tradition of discord and suspicion that characterized our efforts
in the past to build one nation.
It is a duty we can no longer ignore or deny to bring the wasteful strife in the South to
an end, to settle for all time the secessionist war which has haunted the nation these
past several years. Let us sweep aside the gloom of separatism and distrust.
We must apply to the cultivation of a new national tradition of Filipino-unity, in which
Christian and Muslim are brothers in blood and aspiration, in which religious freedom
is not only a guarantee but also a true and enduring bond to hold all men together,
none of them less than the others because of his religious creed or mode of worship.
We ask all our countrymen, every group and every sector of our society, to gather
around this work now unfolding, to lend to it their counsel and their guidance, and the
light of their earnest criticism.
We have had enough of bitterness and faction among us to realize now that we have
spent ourselves and reduced thereby the vitality and strength of our nation. Learning
from one another, striving towards consensus, contending and yet aware of our
common life as a nation, we can provide healing answers to the travails of national
life. We shall move forward together.
Of the leadership, the dedication, and the vision so clearly needed by this work of
building and creation in our land, government shall be the first to provide. We shall
bring into the service of government the broadest knowledge and expertise available
throughout our land. We shall set upon the task of reconstructing on a new
foundation the whole of our government bureaucracy from the lowest echelons to
the highest so that we shall have once and for all, truly a government that is
servant to our hopes and our needs.
Government can lead the way to building our new Republic but it cannot do the task
alone. It requires us also to establish new concepts of cooperation and interaction
between government and the pcopl( between communities and their leaders,
between the variant sectors of our society.
The people's initiative, their caring, and their imagination, as much as those of the
government, will determine how far and how fast we can achieve the blessings of
true democracy on our land.
But I do believe that our people have never been more prepared for this test of their
communal life and for the effort that it demands. I believe that today we all see our
problems and our opportunities more, clearly than we used to as tasks that are
resolved not by a fever of words and hopes but by action patiently applied to them.
When I look upon our history as a nation, it is this attitude to work and struggle that is
truly new in our society today. It is this profession of faith above all others that shines
upon our work now begin ning in our country.
Nearly a century ago, the man who was martyred on these grounds, Dr. Jose Rizal,
described in words of cautious prophecy the nation that the Filipino race could
become a century hence. He wrote:

"The Philippines will defend with inexpressible valor the liberty secured at the price of
so much blood and sacrifice. With the new men that will spring from their soil and
with the recollection of their past, they will perhaps strive to enter freely upon the
wide road of progress, and all will labor together to strengthen their fatherland, both
internally and externally, with the same enthusiasm, with which a youth falls again to
tilling the land of his ancestors so long wasted and abandoned through the neglect of
those who have withheld it from him. Then the mines will be made to give up their
fold for relieving distress, iron for weapons, copper, lead, and coal. Perhaps the
country will revive the maritime and mercantile life for which the islanders are fitted
by th'eir nature, ability and instincts, and once more free, like the bird that leaves its
cage, like the flower that unfolds to the air, will recover the pristine virtues that are
gradually dying out and will again become addicted to peace cheerful, happy,
joyous, hospitable, and daring."

We are the nation today. With courage and vision we shall be more.
From you therefore, my countrymen, I ask utmost commitment, the unswerving
allegiance to the vision which unites us. You owe this to yourselves. Give all that you
can to your country, and I, God willing, will leave you a society that will fill all your
needs for a decent and honorable life.
Let us then call on the intransigent to realize their just purpose with us; let us awaken
the unconscious and enlighten the misled; let us listen to our detractors in honest
counsel. Let us bind the wounds of the past, and, in one united effort, realize the
aspirations of our people. There are no outside saviors; there is only us the
Filipinos.
There is no injustice that we cannot eradicate, no corruption that we cannot extirpate,
no hardship or crisis that we cannot overcome, as long as we keep faith with the
vision of national greatness.
With the advent of this hour of the New Republic, we enter with a clear eye and a
stout heart a perilous decade. There is nothing to fear; we shall achieve national
liberation; we shall prevail.
I ask you then: let us cross this frontier.

Corazon Aquino's Inaugural Address

Inaugural Address
by Corazon Aquino
11th President of the Philippines
Delivered on February 25, 1986 at the Club Filipino, San Juan, Metro Manila

My brothers and sisters:

I am grateful for the authority you have given me today. And I promise to offer all that
I can do to serve you.
It is fitting and proper that, as the rights and liberties of our people were taken away
at midnight twenty years ago, the people should firmly recover those lost rights and
liberties in the full light of the day. Ninoy believed that only the united strength of a
people can over turn a tyranny so evil and so well organized. It took the brutal
murder of Ninoy to bring about the unity, the strength, and the phenomenon of
People Power. That power has shattered the dictatorship, protected the honorable
military who have chosen freedom, and today has established a government
dedicated to the protection and meaningful fulfillment of the people's rights and
liberties.
We were exiles in our land we, Filipinos, who are at home only in freedom
when Marcos destroyed the Republic fourteen years ago. Through courage and
unity, through the power of the people, we are home again.
And now, I would like to appeal to everyone to work for national reconciliation, which
is what Ninoy came back home for. I would like to repeat that I am very
magnanimous in victory. So I call on all those countrymen of ours who are not yet
with us to join us at the earliest possible time so that together we can rebuild our
beautiful country.
As I always did during the campaign, I would like to end with an appeal for you to
continue praying. Let us pray for God's help especially during these days.

Inaugural Address
by Fidel V. Ramos
12th President of the Philippines
Delivered on June 30, 1992 at the Quirino Grandstand, Manila

"To Win the Future"

Over the last 94 years, eleven Filipino leaders before me have enacted this
ceremony of democratic transition. which signifies for our Republic both continuity
and a new beginning.
This consecration of the presidency binds us to the past, just as it turns our hopes to
the future.
My courageous predecessor, former Pres. Corazon C. Aquino, restored our civil
liberties and then defended them tenaciously against repeated assaults from
putschists and insurgents.
She has made our democracy a fortress against tyrants. Now we must use it to
enable our people to take control of their lives, their livelihood and their future.
To this work of empowering the people, not only in their political rights but also in
economic opportunities, I dedicate my presidency.
I see three elements in the stirring message of our people in th elections. First, they
spoke out against the old politics. They declared their resolve to be led along new
paths and directions toward the nation we long for a nation peaceful,
prosperous, and just.
Second, they reaffirmed their adherence to the secular ideal of Church and State
separate but collaborating, coexistent but each supreme in its own domain. In this
spirit, I see myself not as the first Protestant to become president, but as the twelfth
Filipino president who happens to be a Protestant and who must be president of
Muslims, Christians and people of all faiths who constitute our national community.
Third, our people spoke of their faith that we Filipinos can be greater than the sum of
all the problems that confront us; that we can climb higher than any summit we have
already scaled.
We cannot but interpret the vote as a summons; for us to unite and face the future
together. The people are not looking for scapegoats, but for the basic things to get
done and get done quickly.
Let us begin by telling ourselves the truth. Our nation is in trouble.
And there are no easy answers, no quick fixes for our basic ills. Once, we were the
school of Southeast Asia. Today our neighbors have one by one passed us by.
What is to be done? There are no easy tasks, no soft comforts for those chosen by
circumstances to forge from the crucible of crisis the national destiny.
We must make hard decisions. We shall have to resort to remedies close to surgery
to swift and decisive reform.
First, we must restore civic order. For without stability, businesses cannot run,
workers cannot create wealth, liberty cannot flourish, and even individual life will be
brutish and precarious.
Then, we must make politics serve not the family, the faction, or the party but
the nation. And we must restructure the entire regime of regulation and control that
which rewards people who do not produce at the expense of those who do. A system
that enables persons with political infuence to extract wealth without effort from the
economy.
The immediate future will be difficult in some areas. This could get worse before they
get better. Sacrifices will be asked of every sector of society. But I am not daunted,
because crisis has a cleansing fire which makes heroes out of ordinary people and
can transform a plodding society into a tiger.
Foremost among our concerns must be to bind the wounds of the election campaign
and restore civility to political competition, for our people are weary of the intrigues
and petty rivalries that have kept us down.
I will continue to reach out to all the groups and factions making up the political
community. As early as possible, I will consult with the leaders of the Senate and the
House of Representatives to work out the priorities of the legislative agenda.
I call on our mutinous soldiers and radical insurgents to give up their armed struggle.
I will work with Congress in fashioning an amnesty policy that will enable errant
reformists to re-enter civil society.
When the time is opportune, I also intend to ask Congress to convene itself as a
Constituent Assembly to amend the Constitution.
Let us strive to make our political system fairer to all and more representative of the
vastness and variety of our country.
Let us all lay to rest our enmities and our conflicts, and this once join together in the
reform and renewal of our society.
There are enough problems to engage us all; and if we surmount them, there will be
enough glory to share.
Next in our priorities is to nurse the economy back to health and propel it to growth.
We must get the entire economy to generate productive employment keeping in
mind that for each citizen, a job means not merely material income, but social
usefulness and self-respect.
Here, too, we must begin with the basics the social services that government must
provide, but has not, foundations of economic health, which we should have set up
long ago, but have not.
We cannot dream of development while our homes and factories are in darkness.
Nor can we exhort enterprise to effort as long as Government stands as a brake
and not as a spur-to progress.
Both farm and factory must be empowered to produce more and better.
Deregulation and privatization shall set free our industries from the apron strings of
the State.
Dismantling protectionist barriers and providing correct incentives and support shall
make our industry more efficient and world competitive and our exports, the
spearhead for economic revival and growth.
The last Congress has given us the law opening the economy to foreign investments.
Our job now is to make that law come to life.
What we do for industry, we will supply in equal measure for agriculture, primarily
because almost half of all our workers still live on it. And equally because agriculture
is the foundation for our industrial modernization.
In this effort, we need a more realistic agrarian reform law which we can fully
implement for the empowerment of our farmers. Keeping productivity and effective
land use uppermost on our minds, let us set clear targets and do what is practicable.
Let us be firm about the paramount object of our labors. It is to uproot the poverty
that grips our land and blights the lives of so many of our people.
I have asked Mang Pandoy and his family to be my guests in this inaugural
ceremony-as proof of my resolve to obtain for families like theirs all over the country
the humanities of life. Poverty we must learn to regard as another form of tyranny,
and we must wage against it the moral equivalent of war.
In this work of expanding the life choices of the poorest among us, my government
will work hand-in-hand with nongovernment organization and people's organizations.
Throughout the campaign, I heard it said over and over that our national decline
derives not any flaw in the national character or any failing of the individual Filipino
but from government's historic failure to lead.
We cannot deny the logic of that verdict. For when the systems, rules and conditions
are fair and sound, we Filipinos have excelled sometimes to the astonishment of
the world.
My administration will prove that government is not unavoidably corrupt and that
bureaucracy is not necessarily ineffective.
Graft and corruption we will confront more with action results than with words. We
will go after both the bribe-takers and the bribegivers.
The bigger the target, the greater will be the government's effort.
We will prove that effective and efficient government is possible in this country. Not
just in national administration, but in the governing of our local communities.
The road to development is by now much traveled. We Filipinos have lacked not the
way, but the will. This political will, my presidency shall provide.
In foreign relations, we shall strive to strengthen ties with old friends and trading
partners and we shall endeavor to develop new friendships.
My government begins its term in a world transformed. The tide of freedom rising
everywhere should help along our efforts to make democracy work here at home.
By the gift of Providence, our archipelago is strategically located in the critical sea
lanes of Asia and the Pacific. This geopolitical fact shapes our relations with the
world a sense of responsibility for the building of peace and stability in our region,
and a recognition of opportunity in our quest for development.
Diplomacy for development will be our central foreign policy thrust.
While residual political-military dangers may linger in the region, securing continued
access to markets and technology must become Southeast Asia's primary concern.
This we will pursue in concert with our regional partners and neighbors.
Can we accomplish all we need to do within six years? Yes, we can. We can lay the
ground for self-sustaining growth and more. But we can win the future only if we are
united in purpose and in will.
The Filipino State has historically required extraordinarily little of its citizens. As
individuals, we Filipinos acknowledge few obligations to the national community. Yet,
if we are to develop, citizenship must begin to count more than ties of blood and
kinship. Only with civic commitment does development become possible in a
democratic society.
Certainly, there can be no more tolerance of tax evasion, smuggling and organized
crime no matter how highly placed those wh commit it. Nor can we continue to
turn a blind eye to the social costs of unbridled profit.
The loss of our forests, the desiccation of our soil, the drying-up of our watercourses,
and the pollution of our cities these are the pubic consequences of private
irresponsibility. We must stop this profligat use and abuse of our natural resources,
which are ours only in trust for those who will come after us.
Some of us think that empowennent means solely the access of every citizen to
rights and opportunities. I believe there is more to this democratic idea. Our ideology
of Christian democracy, no less than its Muslim counterpart, tells us that power must
flow to our neighborhoods, our communities, our groups, our sectors and our
institutions for it is by collective action that we will realize the highest of our hopes
and dreams.
During my term, we will be celebrating the centennial of our national revolution
those shining years between 1896 and 1898 when we were a beacon of freedom for
the whole of colonial Asia.
Generations of our heroes from Sultan Kudarat to Jose Rizal speak to us
across history of the strength that unity can confer on any people.
Yet we Filipinos have always found unity difficult even in the face of our crises of
survival.
We were conquered by colonizers because we did not know our own strength.
Today, in the midst of our trials, we must learn how strong we can be if only we
stand together. This nation, which is the collective sum of our individual aspirations,
cannot remain divided by distrust and suspicion. Either we rise together cannot
remain divided by distrust ilnd suspicion. above our self-centered hickerings and
factional quarrels or we fall into the pits we have dug for one another.
In 1890 Rizal, envisioning The Philippines a Century Hence regarded as inevitable
as decreed by fate the advancement and ethical progress of the Philippines.
We who are closer to that time have a more diminished sense of our possibilities.
If we are to attain what Rizal wished for his posterity "More law and greater liberty
we must do as he prescribed. We must stifle our dissensions and summon once
more the spirit of this nation.
As Rizal foresaw, the time has come to tell ourselves that if w wish tu be saved, we
must redeem ourselves. And in this work of self redemption, we must "expend the
whole light of our intellect, and the pulse of our hearts."
For most of my public life, I have been mainly a citizen soldier, wanting in eloquence
compared to those who have preceded me ill this rite of democratic transition. But I
share their vision of what our nation can become. This nation will endure, this nation
will prevail and this nation will prosper again if we hold together.
Before us lies the challenge: Come then, let us meet it together With so much for us
to do, let us not falter. With so little time left in our hands, we cannot afford to fail.
And with God's blessing for all just causes, let us make common cause to win the
future.

PASINAYANG TALUMPATI SA BANSA NI PANGULONG JOSEPH EJERCITO

ESTRADA
Quirino Grandstand, Rizal Park, Manila
Hunyo 30, 1998
Magandang hapon sa inyong lahat.

Papalubog na ang liwanag, at malapit nang kumagat ang dilim. Gayunpaman,

ngayong hapon ay nagsisimula na ang isang bagong araw. Ang araw ng lahing
Pilipino. Ang araw ng masang Pilipino.
Sa wakas, mamumuno na sa ating masa ang isang gaya nila, isang kaibigan at
kapatid, isang kapwa --- na alam kung ano ang ibig sabihin ng maging maka-masa.
Noong huling tumindig ako dito sa Quirino Grandstand, kasama ko sina Pangulong
Cory Aquino at Cardinal Sin, at napakarami ng nanindigan para sa demokrasya.
Nakapiling ko rin kayo, at tayong lahat ay napabilang sa mga tunay na kaibigan ng
demokrasya. Kaya papaano masasabi na ako raw ay mala-diktador? Noong huli
akong tumindig doon sa lumang gusali ng Senado, labindalawa lamang kami.
Nguni't ---
Labindalawa na lumalaban sa mala-higante at makapangyarihang bansa;
Labindalawa na lumaban sa pamahalaang patuloy na nagpa-alila sa banyagang
kapangyarihan; Labindalawa na lumaban sa public opinion;
Subali't labindalawa na nanindigan para sa kalayaan at dangal ng ating bansa.
Pero mayroon pa ring nangahas na pagdudahan ang ating prinsipyo!
Marahil, ninais kong tapusin sa lalong madaling panahon, ang ilang isyu na matagal
nang bumubulabog sa bayan.
Bakit? Upang wakasan na ang lahat ng bagay na dapat nating ilibing sa limot ng
kasaysayan.
Sa aking pagmamadali, maaring hindi ko na inisip, na kailangan pang lumipas ang
mahaba-habang panahon upang maghilom ang sugat ng ilan, at ang sugat ng
bayan.
Tanong ko ngayon: mayroon pa ba kayang sinaktan at nilait nang higit pa sa akin?
Mayroon pa ba kayang binastos sa peryodiko o sa radyo o sa telebisyon ng higit?
Huwag na lang ako: kahit ang aking ina ay lubhang nasaktan dahil sa mga insultong
ipinukol sa kanyang anak.
Ako ay tao lamang, at hindi po madaling magsabi --- forgive and forget, kalimutan na
lang. Nguni't kailangan kong tapusin ang yugtong ito; at sa akin ay tapos na, nasa
likod na natin, at hindi na dapat pag-usapan.
Pagkat dapat lamang na ako ay makisama sa lahat ng ating mamamayan, kasangga
man o katunggali, kaibigan o kalaban.
Bakit? Sapagka't iisa lamang ang ating bayan, iisa lang ang ating landas, at kung
hindi tayo magsasama-sama sa isang tunay na bukluran, kanino pa kaya, at kailan
pa, kundi ngayon?
Ngayon na --- sapagka't ang hinaharap ng bansang Pilipino ay lubhang mabigat,
lubhang malalim. Ang regional currency crisis ay paghamon hindi lang sa ating mga
bangko o mga negosyante, kundi sa bawa't pangkaraniwang mamamayan.
Kaya sasabihin ko sa inyo ngayon, at sa buong mundo: Hindi tayo nag-aalinlangan,
at hindi tayo nakakalimot.
If I have seemed impatient, it was because you and I wanted peace, and only peace.
We must put yesterday behind us, so that we can work for a better tomorrow. I do not
say: let us forget the past. No, I don't. But I ask that we should not let the past get in
the way of a future that requires cooperation to achieve peace and prosperity for the
least of us.
Matagal nang naghihintay ang lahat para sa isang bagong umaga. Heto na, ngayon
na, ang panahon ng masang Pilipino.
Panahon na upang mapabilis ang pag-angat sa kabuhayan ng masang Pilipino.
Panahon na upang magkaroon ng lalong malaking bahagi, sa yaman ng ating bansa,
ang masang Pilipino.
Panahon na upang sabihin: isang daang taon pagkatapos ng Kawit, limampung taon
pagkatapos na kilalanin ang ating kasarinlan sa panahon ni Presidente Roxas, pitong
taon pagkatapos tayong tumalikod sa foreign bases, eto na, narito na, araw na natin
ngayon.
Alam nating hindi ito madaling gawin. Malubha ang lagay ng ekonomiya. Dapat
lamang pagtuunan ng matagalang pansin ang pagsasa-ayos sa pambansang
kabuhayan.
May mga nagsasabi: hindi raw maaaring madaliin ang mga gawaing ito. Unahin daw
muna ang ekonomiya. Wala akong reklamo diyan, pero ang tanong ko: Mayroon pa
bang ibang paraan upang mai-angat ang kabuhayan ng mga mamamayan? Hindi ba
puwedeng sabay-sabay? Bakit ang masa ang laging huli at laging nalalamangan,
kapag ang pinag-uusapan ay ang kaunlaran ng ekonomiya?
Noong tinatalakay ang mga reporma na ikabubuti ng mga negosyante, halos wala
tayong narinig na nagreklamo sa kanila, na masyadong mabilis at malupit ang mga
pagbabago. Gayunpaman, hindi ba pawang katotohanan lamang na ang
pangkaraniwang mamamayan ang pumasan sa malulupit na epekto ng liberalization
at globalization?
Gustuhin natin o dili, ang hamon ng kompetisyon ay kailangan nating tugunan.
Ituturing natin itong pagkakataon, nguni't kailangang palakasin ang pambansang
ekonomiya at palawakin ang pakinabang ng nakararami.
Sa anim na taon ng pamamahala ni Pangulong Cory Aquino, naitatag ang
pundasyon upang muling lumakas ang ating ekonomiya. Sa pangangasiwa ni
Pangulong Ramos, nagsimulang magluwal ng dibidendo ang ekonomiya para sa
malalaking negosyante.
Ngayon naman, ang maliliit ay dapat makinabang sa ating pagsisikap. Sana, sila rin.
Sana, sila naman ay maka-bahagi.
Progress must not be measured by the number of vacation houses of the rich.
Huwag naman sanang masamain, ng ilan sa ating mga mayayaman ang mensaheng
ito. Mula't sapul, sila ang nakinabang --- at hanggang sa ngayon ay makikinabang pa
rin, sapagka't gagawin natin ang lahat upang maibalik ang katahimikan sa ating
bayan, ang katahimikan na kailangan upang umunlad ang ating kalakalan.
Kaya sa ating mga maliliit at mahihirap, narito ang pangako ni Erap: kayo ang unang
makikibahagi sa biyaya mula sa ekonomiya, at mula sa pamahalaan.
Sa abot ng aking makakaya, bibigyan natin ang masa ng disenteng tahanan, sapat
na pagkain, at pag-asa sa hinaharap. Pag-aaralin natin ang kanilang mga anak, at
aalagaan natin ang kanilang kalusugan. Sa kanilang mga pamilya, ihahandog natin
ang katahimikan, hanapbuhay at dangal sa araw-araw.
Sa kasawiang palad, dumating ang panahon ng masang Pilipino habang ang
ekonomiya ng buong Asya ay bumabagsak. Wala tayong magagawa. Kailangan
nating maghigpit ng sinturon, at ipagpaliban muna ang sapat at maagang gantimpala
sa ating pagsisikap.
Sa aking mga kababayan, ito ang aking masasabi: sa inyong pagsasakripisyo, ako
ang mau-una, at ako ang inyong kasama. At sa paglasap sa mga gantimpala ng
ating pagsisikap, hindi kayo mahuhuli.
While I ask you to share these sacrifices with me, I will not impose any more on you
when it comes to meeting my duties and responsibilities as president. It is my job
now, and I will do it.
Walang dahilan upang lumaganap ang krimen sa ating lipunan; mangyayari lang ito
kung ang gobyerno mismo ay kumukupkop sa mga kriminal. Walang organisasyon o
gawaing kriminal na kayang lumaban sa pamahalaan, kung ang pamahalaan ay
tapat sa pagnanasang durugin ang kriminalidad.
We know that the major crimes in this country are committed by hoodlums in
uniforms. We know they are protected by hoodlums in barong tagalog, and acquitted
by hoodlums in robes. We know that the most damaging crimes against society are
not those of petty thieves in rags, but those of economic saboteurs in business suits;
the dishonest stockbrokers, the wheeling-dealing businessmen, influence-peddlers,
price-padders and other crooks in government.
Ipinangangako ko ngayon: gagamitin natin ang buong kapangyarihan ng
pamahalaan upang labanan ang krimen --- maliit man o malaki. Walang makalulusot.
Walang itatangi. I will use all the powers of government to stamp out crime, big and
smal.
There will be no excuses, and there will be no exceptions. I have sent friends to jail
before, and I can send them again.
No government is so powerless that it cannot protect its citizens, especially when
they are victimized by government agents.
No government is so helpless that it cannot prosecute criminals, especially when the
officials are criminals operating in the open.
Hindi makatarungan na sa isang bansang karamihan ay nagugutom at walang
hanapbuhay, ang kaban ng bayan ay winawaldas at ninanakaw. Ang likas-yaman ay
pinaghahati-hatian ng malalakas sa gobyerno.
So let me tell you today: There are things that a real government, even in the worst
economic conditions, can do.
This government will do it.
Kaya nating sugpuin ang lumalaganap na krimen. Ginawa ko ang magagawa ko
noong ako ang tagapangulo ng PACC. Gagawin ko ngayon ang lahat, ngayong
Pangulo na ako. At walang sinumang makapipigil sa akin.
What I did in PACC, I will now do, and more, as President of the Philippines. And
when I succeed this time, nobody, nobody, nobody can clip my powers!
Kaya pa rin ng pamahalaan ang magbigay ng mahahalagang serbisyo: mga
lansangan, mga paaralan, mga health centers, sapat na bilang ng mga pulis at
sandatahang lakas na sadyang katahimikan ang likha at alaga. Gagawin natin ito.
Magagawa ng gobyerno ang lahat ng ito, huwag lamang saksakan ng nakawan at
pork barrel.
Hindi mapapakain ng pamunuan ang lahat ng mga nagugutom sa ating bansa. Pero
uusigin natin ang sinumang kukupit sa pondo na nakalaan sa pagbili ng pagkain.
Hindi kaya ng gobyerno na pagbigyan ang lahat ng mga lugar na nangangailangan
ng kalsadang konkreto at aspaltado. Pero hindi natin palalampasin ang sinumang
magnanakaw ng perang nakalaan sa paglikha ng mga tulay at kalsada.
Hindi kaya ng pamahalaan na agad pabalikin ang milyun-milyong overseas contract
workers, at bigyan sila ng hanap-buhay sa ating bayan. 'Ramdam natin ang
kalungkutan at pighating dala ng paghihiwalay, subali't pangako natin sa kanila na 'di
pababayaan ang pamilya at mga anak nila rito. At lalong 'di natin kaliligtaan ang
kapakanan nila sa ibang bansa.
Hindi kayang bigyan ng sapat na edukasyon ang lahat ng mga kabataang Pilipino,
tulad nang itinadhana ng Saligang-Batas. Pero hindi natin palalampasin ang
sinumang magwawaldas sa pondong nakalaan para sa mga libro at paaralan.
I appeal to the coming Congress to search its conscience for a way to stand behind
me, rather than against me, on the pork barrel issue. I appeal to every legislator: Let
us find a way to convert pork into tuition subsidies in both public and private schools.
Let us use it to better the lives of our people, rather than to improve our chances of
re-election.
There are crimes that I will make my personal apostolate to punish:
--- low crimes in the streets, by rich and poor alike;
--- high crimes on Ayala Avenue and Binondo;
--- graft and corruption throughout the government, whether in the executive, the
legislative or the judiciary.
Ngayon pa lamang, ang mga kamag-anak ko ay nilalapitan na ng kung sinu-sino.
Kung anu-anong deal at kickback ang ipinangangako.
Binabalaan ko sila: ang kanilang inilalapit ay ebidensiyang gagamitin ko sa pag-usig
sa kanila, kapag itinuloy nila ang kanilang maruming balakin. Tandaan nila ito.
Lalong mabuti, maghanda sila. Huwag nila akong subukan!
Sa aking administrasyon, walang kaibigan, walang kumpare, walang kamag-anak.
Hindi naman napakabigat ng mga ipinangako ko. Simple lang ang aking hinahangad.
At simple rin ang ating hinahangad, subali't pagkatagal-tagal nang hindi natutupad.
Nais kong maihatid ang kapayapaan sa ating buhay, at katiwasayan sa ating lipunan.
Nais kong isa-ayos ang gulo sa ating mga lansangan, at itatag ang katarungan sa
ating mga institusyon.
Nais kong bigyan ng bagong lakas ang ating ekonomiya, at patas na pagsasabahagi
ng mga bunga nito.
Nais kong isipin ng bawa't Pilipino, mahirap man o mayaman, na ang pinakaligtas na
lugar sa buong mundo, ay ang kanyang lupang tinubuan.
I want every Filipino, rich or poor, to feel, that the safest place in the world for him, is
his own country.
At sa dakong huli, umaasa akong mapagsasama-sama ko ang lahat ng mga Pilipino,
upang matamo nila ang kapangyarihan na buhat sa nagkakaisang hangarin. Sa
ganitong pagkakaisa, maiiwasan natin ang krisis sa ating rehiyon, at makakamit natin
ang pangarap ng ating sentenyal.
Kalayaan.
Kalayaan sa isang mapang-aping kahirapan.
Isang bayang ligtas sa takot, at ang lahat ay pantay-pantay sa pagkakataon.
Nasa diwa at puso ng bawa't Pilipino ang kalayaan. Sa bansang ito, isang daang
taon na ang nakararaan, nasulyapan sa Asya ang unang liwanag ng kalayaan.
Samahan ninyo si Erap, upang bigyan natin ng kakaibang ningning ang kalayaan sa
buhay ng masang Pilipino.
Nitong huling labindalawang taon, malimit tayong nanawagan sa kapangyarihan ng
sambayanan, sa people power, alang-alang sa demokrasya, at sa kaunlaran, at sa
iba't ibang bagay.
Ngayon, ang kapangyarihan ay nasa kamay na ng bayan. Wala nang dahilan upang
ipagkait pa sa nakararami at sa maliliit --- ang magandang kinabukasan.
Sa wakas, bayan ko, atin na ang tagumpay. Isa sa inyo ang ngayon ay Pangulo na.
Ito na ang hinihintay na bagong umaga. Narito na ang ating panahon.
Walang tutulong sa Pilipino, kundi kapwa Pilipino.
Maraming salamat po.