Ferdinand Marcos

“ Grave as our problems might be and though our hopes and our patience may be strained to the limit, we must resolve, as a nation, never to stand divided.
We must resolve to keep united because the alternative to unity is division, and division is fratricide. ”

“ I am convinced that our educational system must be relevant and responsive to the changing times. Every Filipino must be given the opportunity to acquire basic skills, qualities and attitudes that would enable him to contribute to the improvement of our society.
Total enrolment this school year is at an all-time high of 10.2 million pupils and students. More than one out of every four Filipinos are in school, and our enrolment ratio in higher education remains the second highest in the world (1,500 per 100,000 population) exceeded only by the United States. ”

“ We must reorient domestic policy so we may return dignity and power to the people— the peasant, the laborer, the employee and worker—without wreck­ing the gains of investment. This needs more statesmanship than the first.
For too long have we used Western methods for our Asian problems- Now we must adopt a Filipino or Asian approach to them.
When we speak of employment, we speak in alien terms of the huge factories and manufacturing centers. Now let us talk of the Asian way of small family-level manufacturers or producers with a central management, finan­cing, marketing and direction. ”

“ We are a developing nation in a world divided between rich and poor. And ail our dreams and sacrifices have been mocked by a system which permits the few to exercise irresponsible power over the many. ”

“ I view with no less concern the restiveness of our students and other young people. Many of their demands are valid and deserve our attention. I am con­vinced that our militant student and youth population constitutes a positive force for bringing about radical reforms in our society.
At this stage of our economic development the need for middle-level manpower has become imperative. Technological education deserves to be given greater emphasis by providing training programs that are closely related to the needs of our economy. ”

“ If this observation of our society be true, and I believe it is true, we can no longer achieve so much merely to survive. This brutal pattern in which time and circumstance make a mockery of our heroic efforts must now be broken. For survival is no longer enough for our people. They want—and they deserve—more. ”

“ The Philippine population is now growing at an annual rate of three per cent. This implies a doubling of the number of people in less than 22 years. The stresses on the social and economic fiber of the nation will be tremendous. Gigantic efforts to meet the geometrically rising requirements of the masses will have to be made—in the areas of housing, employment, education, food production, medical care and essential public services. The pace of our development dictates that we adopt a genuine family planning program. ”

“ National unity on the old terms—the domination of the many by the few—may no longer be feasible. The supreme challenge to this generation is to redefine the terms of this unity, so that it will rest on enduring foundations of social justice and true fraternity. ”

“ Only by forging anew our unity on the basis of far-reaching social and economic reforms, motivated by a profound regard for the dignity of the human person, can we defend this unity and preserve it against other claims, especially radical ones. ”

“ For the oligarchy is not impressed by social unrest; it uses it instead to mani­pulate power and influence. While this government has the means to check the oligarchs, only new laws can guarantee that they will never again impose their will on a free people. ”

“ MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT
As a major part of our employment promotion strategy, we quickened the pace of national manpower and out-of-school youth training in 1970. This was a priority program we launched in 1967 to train and develop human resources, and which we have since transformed into a nation-wide program.
For FY 1969-70, the National Manpower and Youth Council trained 98,098 unemployed young adults and out-of-school youths in a wide range of occupational skills. Seventy-five to 85 per cent of these graduates have found employment or have become self-employed. ”

“ In the distribution or redistribution of public land in the future, we should give priority to the underprivileged workers, including migrant laborers—the “sacadas.” We should resist and stop the tendency to reproduce in public land areas the regressive and wasteful land tenure of traditional society. Our public land policy must be pegged to the goal of a broadly based, democratic land ownership.
Affluent Consumption Tax
I call for the imposition of a tax on affluent consumption. This shall include a progressive tax on luxury houses, cars, and other symbols of conspicuous consumption. ”

“ This leadership is not under any illusion that such an objective is easily achieved. It may take generations to do so. But we must start now. Frictions will arise. But I am determined that these frictions will not divide the nation into hostile camps.
It is imperative, therefore, that we unite in a common endeavor. Neither shouting in the streets nor inflammatory rhetoric can solve our problems. Let us speak softly, if insistently, so that we may hear and speak to one another. Those who will destroy us will keep on shouting; they will intensify the agitation ”

“ The great Filipino masses, to be sure, have their own responsibilities, but it is they who have had to bear the burden of our nation. I would place the burden of shaping a better society in which they have no place. ”

“ If all our leaders, past and present, must stand accused before the people, let it be so. But we in the present leadership cannot shirk our responsibility. The time has come to redress the balance on the side of the people- We lead in a time of peril—but of rare opportunity. ”

“ When the “economic royalists” prove to be insatiable, when they use the combination of media and economic power to coerce and intimidate the duly elected leaders of the people and to advance their privileges and financial gains, there is no course left but to eradicate them. ”

“ As a people, we wanted to have the best of both worlds. We wanted to have development and to consume immediately its fruits. We imported too heavily, and the rich among us spent profligately out of the total foreign exchange capabilities of the country. ”

“ The illness of our society is aggravated by agitators who would make us so enamored of equality that we would prefer to be equal in slavery rather than un­equal in freedom. But despite the demagogues and charlatans, the social unrest is so immensely real that nothing less than the restructuring of the social order is imperative beginning this year. ”

“ It may be the duty of a democratic President to reconcile the few who are rich with the many who are poor. But if the oligarchs would be adamant and block the progress of the many, I shall gladly break with the few, no matter how powerful and wealthy they might be, to fight for the many. ”

“ In order to remedy the disparity between educational output and the demands of national development, I strongly propose that appropriate reforms at the level of higher education be given due consideration. I urge that there be more intensive efforts to prevent further increase of the educated unemployed as well as to enhance the quality of higher education through professionally designed accreditation schemes. ”

“ Land reform increased agricultural productivity. In land reform areas, average rice yield per hectare in 1966 was 48.9 cavans for the first crop and 41 cavans for the second crop. At present the production per hectare is 63.1 cavans for the first crop and 64.5 cavans for the second crop, representing an increase of 29.4 and 57.3 per cent, respectively. This experience has led the National Land Reform Council and the National Food and Agriculture Council to integrate two government programs — land refonn and agricultural production, with Nueva Ecija as a pilot province. ”

“ In the past year fortunately, we acted just in time to remedy such abuses against several cultural minorities, who, as a result, have been restored to their patri­mony as well as to their confidence in the government.
The law must continue to grow in both flexibility and wisdom. But above all, it must increasingly be attuned to the real needs and aspirations of the masses of the people. ”

“ In some industries like cement on which the total exposure of government is about P900 million, there has been delinquency in the payments of amortization and indebtedness to some government institutions like the Development Bank of the Philippines, notwithstanding the existence of huge inventories of stock­piled production which cannot be sold in the open market. In order to give a push to economic activity in this area, we have instituted a linkage arrangement under which these debtor corporations can offset their indebtedness to DBF by delivering goods for public projects. ”

“ The development of the nation’s human resources is deserving of the highest priority in our scale. Education must continue to deserve the increasing investment of resources for its expansion and strengthen­ing. ”

“ I ask Congress to enact a law setting up a Commission on Population to place our family planning program on a sustained and permanent basis.
JUSTICE
The administration of justice is not simply a matter of law but also of social behavior. Although legally, all men are equal, the principle of equality is so distorted in reality that we are often appalled by the difference. ”

“ I also propose the expansion of the National Manpower Skills Center to upgrade further the skills of experienced workers in all sectors of industry.
To make the employment of our trained manpower easier, we shall establish more regional and provincial employment offices this year.
POPULATION CONTROL
In my state-of-the-nation message last year, I said that the prospects for our economic development suffered from an exploding population.
The problem is still very much with us. But our population planning program has so succeeded that we can look with optimism to the future. ”

“ Foreign policy arises directly out of the requirements of national growth security.
The national interest still is the guiding principle in determining our relations with other countries. Accordingly, for the purpose of widening the opportunities of diversified trade, we must now open our doors to other countries, to the Soviet Union and Socialist countries in Eastern Europe which comprise huge untapped markets for Philippine products. ”

“ I propose the enactment of a Probation Law that will enable our society to take advantage of extramural treatment as a correctional tool. All progressive systems of criminal rehabilitation have provided for a system of probation and it is time we did the same. ”

“ From an average of 4.7 per cent annual growth rate during the past three years, the growth was two per cent. The decrease in the growth of manufacturing is temporary as it is the net effect of the shifting composition of industrial output brought about by the exchange rate reform.
This is a direct but temporary result of the decision to float the peso and the attempt to restructure the economy. The floating rate discouraged importation of production materials. The shift in investment from consumer goods to capital goods also contributed to this slump. ”

“ I urge the creation of a national commission which shall supervise and regu­late the importation of crude oil and the production and marketing of gasoline and other oil products in the national interest.
SOCIAL AMELIORATION
Workers’ Housing
I call for a redirection of our public housing policy so that it will serve, above all, the working people. I urge the establishment of a National Housing Authority which shall undertake massive low-cost housing projects, resettle and rehabilitate squatter families, and assist in urban planning. ”

“ Aside from the production expected from the feed grain program of the National Food and Agricultural Council, we are exploring the feasibility of tapping several institutions for financing. Two FAO/World Bank missions have visited the country to help us prepare a project loan for livestock financing for the World Bank. These funds, if approved, may be channeled into the development of our cattle, hog, and poultry industries.
We are determined to attain self-sufficiency in at least poultry and pork within the next three years. ”

“ Accordingly, the principal aim of Philippine foreign policy in 1971 is to seek an accommodation with reality. Realism will be the hallmark of our foreign policy. The objectives are to augment and to diversify relations with other countries, where we feel that such will promote the national interest; and to seek new friends while strengthening ties with old ones. ”

“ I feel that the uniform limit of expenditures to an amount equivalent to one year’s salary corresponding to the office sought is arbitrary and impractical. Thus in a congressional election a candidate in Batanes with 5,000 votes more or less would be allowed to spend P32,000.00 for his campaign and a congressional candidate in the first district of Rizal with over 200 thousand votes would also be limited to P32,000.00. It would be more equitable to limit expenditures on a per capita basis in proportion to the number of registered voters in political units. ”

“ It is our fervent hope that the transformation of our society will take place peaceably and legally through the making of a new Constitution. The cynical few would prejudice the Constitutional Convention as a futile exercise even before it has begun. ”