Manuel Roxas

“ The future is ours. The freedom and liberty of our people must be insured. Shall we mortgage the precious heritage of opportunity, which is now available to us out of fear or indolence? The voice of the entire Filipino people answers in single accord, “NO.” We will press forward, we will not retreat. We will not hide our heads in the swift-running sands of time, lest the sands run out, and leave us naked, backward and alone. ”

“ I find no dream of empire in America. While 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. ”

“ Our foreign policy, as laid down and implemented during the past year, has now become clear to all. We yield to no nation of the world in our allegiance to the ideals of the United Nations, in our all-out support of collective security, of world disarmament at the earliest possible date, of world guarantees of noninterference in the internal affairs of free peoples, of world cooperation for the protection and promotion of all the freedoms, including freedom of expression and freedom from want, and of world cooperation to abolish trade barriers and discriminatory trade provisions. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Is the cost of living gradually declining, there- by increasing the purchasing power of wages?
Inflation is a post-war plague depressing the economy of nations and the lives of hundreds of millions of people in the world. Inflation remains unchecked and is in fact growing worse every day in many foreign countries. In our country we are fortunate that we have succeeded not only in arresting inflation but in starting the deflationary trend. ”

“ Despite the hum and bustle of activity in our cities, we have not yet started on the major premises of reconstruction. Let me describe briefly the aspects of the problems we face both as a Government and as a nation.
We are faced first of all by the fact that our Government is without financial means to support even its basic functions, not to speak of the great projects in rehabilitation and economic development, which we contemplate and which are, indeed, vital to our continued existence. ”

“ 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 can report to this Congress today that peace and order have been largely restored in Central Luzon. There are still a few isolated bandit units in hiding. Occasionally they conduct forays into some small barrios or towns. Swift counter-measures are being taken in such cases. There is no reason to call these groups by the name of Hukbalahap. They are not the people’s army against the Japanese; they are not a guerrilla force; they have no unifying idea or purpose, except murder and plunder. They are law-breakers of the most vicious kind. ”

“ The great strides towards social and economic reconstruction we have made cannot be doubted. To do so would be like denying the dawn by merely turning down the lights.
In my first message to the Congress on the state of the nation, I drew a picture–necessarily a dark picture–of the tragic conditions confronting us. Last year I informed you that the crisis had not passed, but that there were hopeful indications of progress ahead. Today, I am glad to report that the crisis has passed, and that our program of rehabilitation is far advanced. Conditions among our people have been ameliorated. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Another of our most serious situations, of course, is inflation. Fundamentally, inflation can only be cured by the production and the importation of sufficient goods to satisfy the market and to allow for free competition. That goal is far in the future. I do not know when we will reach it. For the moment and for some months to come we will be living in a land of scarcity-scarcity of food, scarcity of building materials, scarcity of textiles, scarcity of machinery. ”

“ We have, in all but name and administration, converted our military police into a civilian police force, subject to the direction of the Secretary of the Interior.
We have preserved our birthright of freedom and the forms and substance of democracy. We have fought and overcome the advances of totalitarianism. We have defended and expanded the frontiers of liberty. Nowhere is there a freer press, more unchecked freedom of thought, discussion and expression. ”

“ My answer to this test is that there is no country in the world today where the people enjoy more individual freedom, especially freedom of the press, of speech and of religion, than the Philippines. We impose no censorship on either the spoken or the written word. As a matter of fact, our efforts to suppress completely dissident elements are necessarily delayed because the government is adhering scrupulously to the limitations of the Constitution intended to safeguard individual rights from the abuses of government. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Only three years ago we lived under a different regime, a regime under which the freedoms that we cherish were refused to us. We were not free citizens then; we were subjects of a tyrannical power that blotted our personal dignity and trampled upon our liberty. Today, we enjoy our liberties to the fullest measure and I thank God that we can now stand and walk erect as free men, the equal of the mightiest on this earth. ”

“ I propose for this purpose to appoint a commission, with the power to engage technical and expert assistance from the United States. Taxes must be realistically readjusted to the inflation, which holds us in its grip. Taxes in a sense, represent forced savings. Under present circumstances, increased taxes are a type of bloodletting which will do much to cure the high blood pressure of the current inflation. ”

“ In order to demonstrate to private business that it will have the same opportunity in economic undertakings as government entities, I recommend that the Congress make government corporations subject to the same taxes as private enterprise. ”

“ 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. ”

“ How many of the nations of the world today could claim for their people the freedoms that our citizens enjoy? Survey the face of the earth and I am sure you will find that in many countries individual liberty is being directly or indirectly encroached upon, if not entirely denied, and that the lives of citizens are strictly being regimented to sub serve the interest of the State. In the Philippines we take individual freedom for granted. That is the reason many of us fail to realize the priceless boon we possess. ”

“ Nevertheless, I judge that it is more essential during the next years to concentrate the labor force of the nation upon reconstruction and rehabilitation than to divert 10,000 young men for military training. I shall therefore continue the suspension of the training program at least until 1948. With our security underwritten by the United States, I think that we can take the calculated risk of temporarily reducing the emphasis upon our own defense measures and concentrate upon the monumental tasks of rehabilitation. ”

“ 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. ”

“ What will befall our people and the kind of heritage we leave to our children, and what we can do to make their lot a happy one, constitute the only problem that should absorb our thoughts and stir our hearts during these trying days which, I am sure, will also be days of triumph and glory for our Republic if we have the courage and the wisdom to meet the challenge of the times and to keep faith with the noble principles and traditions which have inspired and sustained us throughout the darkest period of our history. ”

“ We have, within the past eight months, established firmly the basis of independent government. We have gained, in full measure, the confidence of the vast majority of our people, and of all the groups of our population. Labor, farmers and tenants, merchants, importers and exporters, producers and middlemen, all know, and have good reason to know, that we are engaged in endless operations to insure adequate protection and advancement of their interests. In some cases, the interests of one group have had to be reconciled with the interests of another. ”

“ Has the government done anything which would give them the least reason to fear that under our democracy they would be prevented from laboring for the social reforms which they are supposedly to have in mind? They can find no reason for harboring such fear. There is no reform, social or political, which cannot be peacefully secured under our domestic institutions, if it is supported by a majority of the people. ”

“ 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 Government in the position of accusing the United States Congress of willingly conspiring to cheat us of our birthright. ”

“ I am informed that many plain bandits and criminals, gathered from other provinces, including Manila, now pass themselves off as Hukbalahaps, to gain some sort of sanction for their activities. If, however, there are truly elements which are still uninformed of the Government’s beneficent intentions, if that is possible, then I shall continue to exercise a certain amount of tolerance for those who wish to give up their arms and to make their peace with the law. They are our fellow countrymen, some of them served gallantly in the war, and we can do no less. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Hope and resolution have replaced despair and doubt; plan and program have come forward in place of distraction and aimless- ness; our economy is taking shape; peace and order have returned; employment is gradually increasing; business prospers; our exports are mounting daily; assistance of many kinds from the United States has come, and more is on the way. ”

“ Are we maintaining a reason- able equation in our balance of payments? Does a reason- able percentage of the national income go to the formation of capital and is that capital being invested in productive enterprises? ”

“ 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. ”

“ I cannot, in good conscience, overlook the absolute necessity of guaranteeing our security by every and all means available to us. In this troubled and critical period of world history, to do otherwise would be to betray our sacred trust. ”