Ferdinand Marcos

“ All these initiatives and energies for development define a new epic of nation-building. The epic proportions of this effort can be seen in the fact that from Malacañang and from this Congress to the last hamlet of our 26,000 barrios, there are a thousand difficult tasks to do each day, problems and de­cisions that call for much in courage and self-confidence, mental and moral blocks that stand between the vision and the reality. The government cannot attend to all these tasks; it can only provide the climate in which a self-actualiz­ing citizenry can have the opportunity to confront them. ”

“ Before this Administration, government leaders procrastinated, doubted and refused to act, fearing the bug­aboo of inflation. This we have now altered, irrevocably. We are committed to a bolder, but more prudent course. We cannot realize a bright future for this nation with only a half-hearted commitment to development. We must act decisively and assume the risks that these entail. We must bring to the task of development the same courage, fervor and boldness that have distinguished the Filipino in the battlefield. ”

“ These errors have contributed, not to the solution of the problem of subversion, but to its clear and definite aggravation.
To those who seek to overthrow the government, we shall respond in the only language they know—the language of firmness. But to those who are merely misguided and are sincerely working to uplift the common man, we offer the loving embrace of our people in a common effort to build a just society. ”

“ We have rested our hopes not on the power of the state to compel growth through obedience, but to realize growth through self-actualizing citizenship which forms the ethic of democracy.
The state of the nation must be seen against this vista of past experience and contemporary objectives. The challenge of greatness is in continuing the natio­nal epic on a new stage and to a new climax—the successful development of our country within the framework of democratic institutions. ”

“ It is a part of maturity to recognize that we, as a nation, can attain greatness only through labor and salvation through work. We used to pride ourselves in being a generation of fighters. Today, we are called upon to become a genera­tion of builders. Our mission is to build those foundations that will replace the bamboo supports of our agricultural economy, in the phrase of Rizal, with bases of concrete and steel on which can rest a modern civilization and a fuller life for our people. This is central to the task of development. ”

“ We have been tapping sources of financing in our own country. You have seen the highly successful selling of government bonds to realize developmental capital. We have, too, inaugurated the practice of private financing in the building of roads and bridges. This opens up a rich auxiliary source of capital for building the infrastructure. As the land reform program goes apace, more capital will be diverted from idle lands to business and indus­try. Thus, both our economic and social policies deliberately promote a national bias in favor of development. ”

“ Some of us do not seem to realize the limitations of foreign policy. There are critics who naively believe that we can ordain the conditions of the external world, that they can be moved according to our sovereign disposition, that they can always be made to respond to our fiat. The conduct of policy is not like weaving a whole cloth according to an ideal design. ”

“ A historian has pointed out that history resembles a man on a steep ascent, who can hardly see what comes behind him on the preceding ledge. Fortunately, our own history as a nation is young enough for us to see behind us very clearly. ”

“ All our efforts to strengthen business and industry and for that matter the entire development program, are intended ultimately to help the unemployed, the underemployed and all the less privileged members of our society. ”

“ But we cannot succeed completely until we regain the confidence of the ones most directly concerned; the local officials who have been intimidated into supporting the Huk movement, the farmers who have found more justice in the Huk tribunals than in our regular courts, the many others who have remained indifferent to both the Huks and the government. It remains our duty to justify for them their faith in democracy, by proving to them that our open system can succeed, as no regimented system can, in giving them a better and more equi­table life. ”

“ Without any order of importance in mind, I would say that the first is the de­cision to release the forces of development at the risk of stimulating the prices of basic commodities. A faint-hearted administration would have sought temporary refuge behind ultraconservative policies aimed at forcing prices down as well as suppressing economic development. The relaxation of credit for the private sector was made to spur development, but we made it fully aware of the risk that this would increase prices. A mild increase of prices is a consequence of economic buoyancy and optimism. ”

“ On our initiative, a Seven-Nation Summit Conference was held in Manila, the purpose of which was to explore new ave­nues of peace in Vietnam and Asia. As a sovereign state, we could have elected to stand above the conflict, on the false notion that its outcome was irrelevant to the national interest. Instead, we chose to honor our commitments, which is the mark of national responsibility.
The agony of Vietnam is sometimes described as a “war of liberation.” I do not think that we should equate liberation with totalitarian rule. ”

“ Having identified agriculture as a strategic area for national advancement, I sought without delay to mobilize the entire government machinery available as well as all forces and resources in the private sector for a vigorous agricultural policy. Today, some P250 million is committed to our rice and com program, the ultimate objective of which is to insure self-sufficiency. Industry, however, has not been abandoned. ”

“ This rise in revenue collections supports the claim of increased business confidence in the government and in the future of the economy, the increased efficiency of the tax-gathering machinery, the success of anti-smuggling opera­tions, and the buoyant trends in the economy as a whole under the spur of the Administration’s more positive economic policies.
We are now spending within acceptable limits, according to definite and realistic plans of development. Development has a price, which every responsive government must pay, and we are paying it, prudently and rationally. ”

“ As a result of our successful state visits to the United States and Japan, there has arisen a deplorable impression that we are overly concerned with foreign aid, that we are making our development contingent on such aid. We should not demean the importance of assistance from the outside. But we are not waiting for such help before starting our own major development efforts. We are committed to the full utilization of our own internal resources and opportunities for development. ”