Ferdinand Marcos

“ Indeed, we cannot afford to fail. For we are faced with a grave and persistent problem which, unsolved, will wipe out all our gains and destroy the promise of abundance and stability. This is the population problem.
We are faced by a population crisis. It is time that we became aware of it. Much more important, it is time that we began to take steps to arrest a population growth which, unless checked, threatens to compound our problems in the years ahead. ”

“ All the agencies of the government must respond to the needs and problems of the common people.
Our confidence in the future rests on a solid base, namely, our present achievements. The past four years have shown that the spirit of the Filipino people, properly challenged, will more than match the dimensions of the challenges they have to confront.
The only condition is that the nation discipline itself towards its goals. I am not speaking of discipline imposed by a tyrannical government, but of self-discipline in the active exercise of freedom. ”

“ We must turn these difficulties and problems into opportunities to strengthen our moral fibre as a people, to temper our will and character, to imbue the nation with a permanent sense of discipline so necessary to the achievement of progress.
Today we must offer the alternative to anarchy—a constructive nationalism, not a vituperative chauvinism. ”

“ But whereas in earlier years our social welfare program was taken cynically as synonymous with hopelessness and failure, today it is looked on by a con­siderable segment of our people as the promise of a new life. ”

“ This is for me a historic privilege. No man can be exalted higher than to be chosen twice by his own people to lead them; this, at a time of great anxieties and great expectations for the nation and for the world. ”

“ Today, we are animated by the aim of sustained national growth, and willpower must be built into the character of the nation as an enduring and indispensable discipline.
Discipline will move us, surely and steadily, into the future. It is the fount from which purposefulness and unity spring. In the coming years, we will need increasing courage and perseverance, a greater capacity for sacrifice, larger nobility, a stronger resistance to the temptations of sloth and personal fortune. ”

“ It will continue not only to heed the clamor for change but to lead all sectors of society in translating that clamor into real prosperity and contentment among our people. Govern­ment, its conscience awakened, will continue to strive for true and enduring social justice. We have narrowed the gap bet­ween the rich and the poor. The years ahead will be devoted to further reform and innovation that will destroy class bar­riers in Filipino society. ”

“ The situation in the world, as well as that in the Philippines, is marked by sweeping change.
We cannot move forward within the grooves of old habits and outmoded institutions. Progress demands that the barriers of centuries be broken.
But the pursuit of development and the breaking of barriers to progress require such energy and endurance as may strain our resources, both of the public and the private sectors. ”

“ We have grown in population to 37 million people, making us the fifteenth largest nation. Among the developing countries, we rank seventh in the world in population. Countries similar to us in geographical area, such as Great Britain and Japan, have demonstrated their capacity to become world leaders. We do not, we need not, aspire to world leadership. We do have the potential to play a larger role in world affairs. But first, we must acquire the discipline of self-denial, the ability to sacrifice present gratification and ease for permanent and lasting national progress. ”

“ We must offer reforms in the electoral system, abolish social iniquity, work out a government machinery reorganization, provide a modernized penal system, discard feudalism and at the same time oppose fascism.
We must be understanding even with those who refuse to understand us. ”

“ It is para­doxical that while the government is actually engaged in put­ting down an armed threat to the State, we have actually now more troops engaged in development work than we have engaged in combat. ”

“ I refer to the new concept of the barrio home defense, as recom­mended by the field officers engaged in Central Luzon. It has been said that a people get the government they deserve. By the same token, the peace and order that a locality will get is what the people in that locality strive and work for, Recent developments in Central Luzon indicate that the people in those beleaguered provinces have become so fed up with dissident threats and violence that they have volunteered to take on the fight themselves with of course the active help and support of our regular forces. ”

“ In the context of new realities which loom large in the decade of the ’70s, no less than a self-reliant policy can bring about a viable defense posture for the country. Pending resolution of our bilateral treaties in the economic and military fields, steps have been taken by the defense establishment to produce its own arms and munitions at the least cost to the economy.
A re-structuring of our armed services with an acceptable balance of foreign equipment support and locally-produced items will be the principal focus of programming our defense requirements. ”

“ With a soaring birth rate, the prospects for a continued economic development are considerably diminished. Indeed, there is a strong possibility that the gains which we have care­fully built up over the years may be cancelled by a continuing population explosion.
Assuming that there will be no decline in the birth rate, the critical areas will be the supply of food, employment and education. Just to maintain present standards, the Philippines will need during the decade a 40 per cent increase in food production and similar percentage increases in schools and job opportunities. ”

“ As we enter into our second term, we pledge full com­mitment to the implementation of the land reform program. We are determined to pursue social justice hand in hand with economic development.
I am aware, as you all are, that economic development is futile and short-lived if it fails to make its benefits felt among the masses of neglected and underprivileged.
We have therefore inaugurated the Human Resources De­velopment Program. This will increase our people’s capacity to take advantage of opportunities created through develop­ment. ”

“ A principal objective of our economic program is the development of a sizeable domestic market. Employment can be increased substantially only if our industries can find markets of sufficient size as to warrant a high rate of absorption of labor into industrial employment. The infrastructure program has been an important first step in the extension of our domestic markets. Our price support program for agricultural products and our community development program have transferred purchasing power to the rural areas and broadened the base of the domestic market. ”

“ Cor­rectly viewed, urban areas constitute a spearhead of economic and social development.
In some cases, however, unplanned growth has resulted in the creeping disease of urban blight. Cities outgrow them­selves without realizing it. Inadequate sanitation facilities, shortage of social services, lack of housing resulting in the growth of slums, excessive speculation in land, lack of public transportation coupled with inadequate streets, pollution of the atmosphere—these are some of the symptoms of the progressive disease known as urban blight. ”

“ Far from being deaf to the voices of despair and discontent, it has shown compassion for the underprivileged. Far from being insensitive to the clamor for change, it has led a quiet revolution to give justice and abundance to the neglected masses. ”

“ With its familiar spectacles of violence, coercion and fraud, and its general inability to support the aspirations of our people, the present electoral process has been the object of popular disdain through demonstrations and rallies. Under the present system, it has become almost axiomatic that a poor man will not win in an election. ”

“ Economic development will be meaningless unless low-cost housing is made possible for the bulk of the population in urban as well as in rural areas.
As another means of enriching the life of our people, this Administration recognizes the indispensable role of science and technology in national development. Through the Na­tional Science Development Board, the government is deter­mined to develop the country’s resources and to apply these resources to the acceleration of the economic, social and cultural progress of the country. ”

“ One of the principal projects in our educational reform program is the establishment of more trade schools. The beginnings of industrialization in almost all countries are the small machine shops and workshops. Unless we train the young in trade schools in coordination with the manpower development training program we will not be able to encour­age the growth of small machine shops and workshops in this country. ”

“ I am confident that our people, to the last man, have it in themselves to meet the challenges, the duties and perils that we face. But we must together, citizen and leader at the same time, exert a conscious effort to increase and perfect the Filipino potential into a powerful force in active confronta­tion with life. ”

“ It is not an easy triumph that we want. In the past four years, when our purpose was to shake ourselves free from inertia, we had to strain our hearts and limbs in the unusual exertions of will and work to fulfill our aim. ”

“ Government today is often charged with being insensitive, likened to a corporation without a soul. We must demonstrate that government does have the capacity for compassion—for the weak, the underprivileged and the destitute. ”

“ We delude ourselves in thinking that a final solution by military means can be found. For revolt in any of its forms invariably has a deeper root in the thinking, the aspirations and the psychology of the group in revolt.
That is why the government has launched a development program in Central Luzon in which currently about 48 national government agencies are taking part. In the past three years, more than a hundred million pesos has been spent on various development programs in this region; almost the whole region has been placed under land reform. ”

“ It can and will be bridged in a short time. We should be more concerned about the moral gap—a gap in our self-confidence and our strength of purpose as a nation, a gap that threatens all classes of people in all stations of life. ”

“ The most crucial economic problem we face today is our balance of payments. This is a problem caused by the devel­opment process. Specifically, it arose from the enthusiasm of the private sector to import more capital goods. Thus, al­though imports of consumer goods dropped to 12.6 per cent, imports of capital goods increased to 87.4 per cent. ”

“ There is ferment and a desire for change. Many cannot describe, nor do they know, the change that they aspire for, but the instinct is there; let the leaders in government help define and outline it for them. ”

“ We face the danger that greed will vanquish the conscience of the rich. The pitfalls of disunity lie in our path. There is the ever-present danger that the courageous vision which enabled us to advance in the past four years will be overwhelmed by cynicism and hypocrisy. We begin life in the Seventies wracked by growing pains. ”

“ We have adopted a budget for expenditures of our dollars. This will limit importation of both producer and consumer goods and will tend to increase prices in our country, especially because of the tendency to order even those unnecessary imports. Accordingly, we have asked the help of the International Monetary Fund which sent a team of experts for consultations with our monetary authorities. We will not, however, agree to the devaluation of our peso which may cause untold suffering to our lower classes; nor will we accept outright controls. Either places our economy in rigid limits. ”

“ We are interested not just in reforms here and there, but in a sweeping overhaul of our systems to insure the good life and a just society for the Filipino people, and to meet the internal and external challenges for many decades to come. ”

“ But prosperity will always be out of reach, lasting peace will forever be a chimera, if our desire for them does not become a passion and our labors to make them possible are confined to trickles and spurts. ”

“ Another reason for the comparatively stable peace and order situation in the Philippines is the improvement in the economic condition, brought about by breakthroughs in food production, infrastructure and foreign trade. Over the past four years, many of our people have experienced enough, im­provement in their living conditions to be able to discard the despair of the past and begin to entertain, hopes of a good future. ”

“ We have increased the general fund support for state colleges and universities by 30 per cent, the highest in our history.
We have organized a fund for assistance to private education, which provides grants, loans, and other aid to im­prove the facilities and raise the quality of instruction and research in our private higher education institutions.
We have, for the first time in our history, organized an education planning office to rationalize the management of our educational system by developing a systems approach to education and thereby relating it to our needs and resources. ”

“ The task ahead in education is one of creative trans­formation, the clearing away of outworn attitudes and be­haviors, and the utilization of our investment in learning and training to the optimum, in order that our educational system shall become a beneficial and enlightened partnership between our generation and that of the young Filipinos, in whose behalf we labor and spend. ”

“ Our program in Central Luzon is to be pursued patiently and with vigor whether the Huks exist or not. In a sense, it is a proving ground for the proposition that democratic government can be an effective instrument for social change and social justice.
The military, of course, have their own duty to deal with unbridled violence. Progress can hardly be attained in an atmosphere of constant fear and danger to life and property. Since early last year, we have increased the strength and capability of the PC in Central Luzon. ”

“ As everybody knows, the murders, homicides and kidnap-pings which have resulted from the unrest and dissidence in Central Luzon have been indiscriminately recorded as acts of simple criminality in the statistics of crime, thus considerably increasing the visible signs of public disorder and producing a false picture of peace and order in the country. ”