Fidel V. Ramos

“ As we wind up, it is time we examine our political consciences by asking ourselves the bottom-line questions: Have we improved the lives of our people during our terms? Are our people better off today than they were five years ago? To these questions, self-serving answers will never be acceptable to political opinion. As for my administration, we are content -- in any judgment of its record so far -- to stand on the evidence of the economic and social indicators, the testimony of the experts, and best of all, the verdict of ordinary people. ”

“ If we as a nation are to endure, we must return to this self-discipline of democracy. As individuals and as a national community, we must embrace this principle of civic duty. Only by so doing can we attain the good society our revolutionary generation of a century ago had placed almost within our reach. The momentum of our economic take-off must be fueled by every Filipino's ardent desire to see our beloved Philippines returned to her rightful place in the community of progressive nations by the time of the Centennial of our independence in 1998. ”

“ Growth in a free-market economy favors the better-endowed regions, and the better-equipped segments of the economy -- but only initially. As is well known, the long march to prosperity is measured in years and even decades. It is a journey we Filipinos have barely begun -- although we can take comfort in the thought that each step taken brings us closer to our goal. But because the poor cannot wait -- because, in Gabriela mistral's phrase, the child's name is today -- we have intervened to put poverty alleviation at the center of government's concerns. ”

“ We have to learn to talk of growth not in terms of statistics, but in terms of people: in the child we save from hunger and raise to knowledge, in the citizen we raise to a life of dignity and well-being, in the woman we raise to her true place in our society, in the community that we transform from distress into a net contributor to national vitality, and in a national culture that truly reflects and appreciates the native talent and resourcefulness of the Filipino. ”

“ I say it is written even more vividly in the lives of individual Filipinos and their communities. Growth corridors, clusters and centers all over the country are stirring ordinary Filipinos to new vigor -- new ventures -- new lives for themselves and their children. There still is great poverty among us, but every time we touch one family with our livelihood and social-service programs; every time a quality job gives one worker a higher sense of dignity; every time we transform a Smokey Mountain into a decent place for human beings, then we loosen the iron grip poverty has on our people. ”

“ The answer is not to retreat from the challenge of globalization. Let us not delude ourselves. Global economic integration is here to stay. The answer is to ensure our economy remains vigorous and sustainable -- and resilient enough to resist outside manipulations and strong enough to compete in the world. At the same time, we must reinforce the safety nets that we have put in place for our disadvantaged sectors, our poorest classes. We must work hard to win our place in the world -- because the world will not stop for those who stand idly by on the roadside of development. ”

“ Development is impossible if it is not people-powered and people-centered. Whenever foreign observers look at our country, their principal wonder is how we have managed to languish in underdevelopment in spite of our tremendous human resources -- especially our labor force -- their literacy, their competence, their resourcefulness, their high sense of moral values. It is time we fully harnessed this precious asset to bring about greater productivity and social cohesion.
We have embarked on a clear population policy that recognizes the need to moderate our population growth rate. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Taxes are a necessary burden citizens must carry, and the best that government can do is to see to it the burden falls heaviest on those who can best bear it. Yet this judicious spreading of the burden, government in our country has not even been able to ensure. The Filipino middle class -- and the poor -- actually bear disproportionately the burden of paying for public administration. And, ironically, it is also they who suffer most grievously from the lack of basic social services which has substantially resulted from the very high rate of tax evasion by the powerful and influential. ”

“ At our Centennial in 1998, I want to see, as surely you do, our people in command of their destiny, secure in their values -- yet creative enough, audacious enough to meet new challenges with productive solutions. I want to see, as surely you of the Tenth Congress also do, the beauty and richness of our land and our seas fully restored -- a gift from this -- our -- generation to the future ones. ”

“ We must, in sum, depart from the "trickle-down" policies of the past, which had only left our poor farmer and other communities farther behind -- and move into a policy of "positive discrimination" to lift them up and equip them with the humanities of life. Government will set itself not just theoretical but measurable standards for gauging its success in easing poverty year after year.
To act in this way for our poor is to assert the timeless principle that if we are to develop, we must invest in people. ”

“ These past two years we together have achieved a great deal -- in restoring political stability, in turning on the lights once again in our homes and factories, and in returning the economy to the path of growth. But surely, my beloved countrymen, our greatest achievement has been to restore our faith in ourselves, and in what we can do together as a national team. I have always believed we Filipinos are hardest on ourselves: we tend to dwell on our weaknesses, rather than build on our strengths. ”

“ Political fanatics no one can reach through reason and compromise. This is why I ask this Congress to pass an Anti-terrorism Act which defines terrorism as a heinous crime and penalizes it with life imprisonment or death. On still another front -- in our war on criminality -- we will be just as unrelenting. Crimes against women and children are particularly abominable. I ask this Congress to pass without delay bills which impose harsh penalties for rape and for child prostitution, pedophilia and child pornography. ”

“ In closing, let me declare that I do believe we have started creating the conditions for self-sustaining growth. We can end once and for all, by our cooperative efforts, the cycles of boom and bust which have characterized our economic performance. but this much we must realize: reform will not come easy. Some reforms may bring difficult adjustments and even hardships before they do any good. The most we can do is to ensure that reforms hurt least our most vulnerable social groups. The ultimate truth is that we cannot afford to fail -- in our venture of reform and development. ”

“ We must now move aggressively to bring our people up to speed with the global economy. To create high-wage jobs in the future, human-capital investments are the key. And in this spirit, I commend to this Congress -- as a Priority Administration Bill -- the Magna Carta for Students endorsed by our Social Reform Council.
We must improve government's capacity and efficiency across the board -- in its every aspect from top to bottom. The bureaucracy, the civil service we must further professionalize and Local Government Units we must begin to use as strategic partners in development. ”

“ But it provides the most enduring foundation stone for the good society we are trying to build -- for ourselves and for those who will come after us. To lay that foundation and to move the country forward to sustainable development are the primary goals of my government. We face this task with optimism -- confident we can bring the economy to take-off, and complete a profound reform of the Philippine state -- raising its political will, increasing its national capacity, and strengthening its social cohesion -- before the dawn of the new century. ”

“ In practice, the "equality" the Constitution guarantees becomes a mere abstraction without a minimum amount of economic equality in terms of housing, of health care, of basic education. The poor are the focal point of government's social services -- which are of course financed through the taxation of the more comfortable and affluent among us. Those of us who still regard the state as no more than a night watchman -- whose only duty is to safeguard private property -- live in an era long gone. ”

“ To accelerate such reforms, we need above all to improve dramatically the effectiveness of public institutions. We must simplify the system of regulations, licenses and permits accumulated over generations of big government that have often become opportunities for corruption. The entire public sector we must transform from a regulatory into a promotional and developmental paradigm serving and urging the private sector to become globally competitive -- similar to those that led to East Asia's amazing transformation these past 30 years. ”

“ And, whatever we do, we must not allow growth to slow down -- because only sustained development will enable us to finally wipe out Filipino poverty. And we cannot allow our democracy to wither -- because Philippine democracy is our unique comparative advantage in the new global order. Only democracy can release the spirit of enterprise and creativity among our people, and without freedom, economic growth is meaningless. ”

“ 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 influence to extract wealth without effort from the economy.
The immediate future will be difficult in some areas. ”

“ Today we can truly claim we have given our country that fresh start. We have arrested the decline -- of the economy and the national spirit -- which had so demoralized our people. We are concluding a just and honorable peace with the military rebels, the insurgents and the Southern secessionists. A new spirit of cooperation existing between Congress and the Presidency has avoided the gridlock which obstructed policy-making in previous administrations. ”

“ Once upon a time, democracy was a millstone around our neck. Both those who sought to subvert the Philippine State -- and those who sought to stop reform -- used democracy's means to bring Philippine democracy down. Philippine-style democracy is our competitive edge today -- because democracy -- by awakening and mobilizing ordinary people to the possibilities of their lives -- enlarges tremendously our talent pool of enterprise, knowledge and productivity. ”

“ On this the dawning of our Centennial of Philippine independence, if there is one paramount achievement to which we Filipinos must dedicate ourselves, it is this -- that, by 1998, we Filipinos must show and prove to the world that we are finally a nation united. ”

“ We will continue, if not accelerate, the program to reduce tariffs until these reach one uniform rate. Simplifying and bringing down the tariff level is the best way to stop smuggling and corruption at the Bureau of Customs. We also need to recast our laws on trusts, monopolies, oligopolies, cartels and combinations injurious to public welfare -- to restore competition where it has disappeared, and to preserve it where it still exists. In a word, we need to perpetuate competition as a system to regulate the economy and achieve global product-quality. ”

“ In contrast, we are working to reconcile our democratic politics with an oligarchic economy left over from the colonial period -- not by changing the political system, but by democratizing the economy. The time for authoritarianism has passed -- in our country and in the world. Instead of the discipline of command, we must invoke the self-discipline of civic responsibility. We Filipinos have always accepted that people with more are obliged to help people with less -- in the name of a common, compassionate humanity. This traditional moral code we shall make a principle of public policy. ”

“ We have reduced the population growth rate marginally -- from 2.35% in 1990 to 2.32% in 1995. But this still means our population will double -- over the next 31 years -- from today's near 70 million to 138 million. This press of sheer numbers will have a tremendous impact on poverty and on the degradation of our environment -- unless we do something, and unless we start now. And that Population Management Bill is now here in the Tenth Congress. The plain truth is that we can no longer make do with economic leapfrogging -- because other countries are leapfrogging, too. ”

“ We seek legislation to improve the urban poor's easier access to decent and affordable housing. And I ask this Congress to continue its predecessor's work of setting the framework of agrarian reform and modernizing agriculture -- as the foundation of industrialization and sustainable, broad-based development. I ask you to give maximum legislative support towards the increase of the Agrarian Reform Fund, and to pass the Irrigation Crisis Act, if we are to make our small farmers competitive in the world. ”

“ And we must see to it every citizen develops as great a care for his civic duties as for his civic rights. In social reform, we must never forget we seek growth not for its own sake but only as a means to enlarge each citizen’s enjoyment of the benefits of our democracy, because no amount of growth will mean anything -- unless it improves the lot of the common tao. The key reform is to give the ordinary Filipino an inherent stake in our system -- the chance to own and manage an honest livelihood and to win his own future.
Let me now take up our tasks of modernization in more detail. ”