Ferdinand Marcos

“ The Filipino had lost his dignity, his courage and even his soul. For we existed at the time in a precarious democracy which advanced the few who were rich and powerful, and debased the many who were poor. Government was the acolyte of an oligarchy whose preeminence reached back to the colonial era. This arrangement resulted in a society that could no longer endure; as social scientists said, we, the Filipinos, were sitting on top of a "social volcano." But our young martyr and hero had a more arresting metaphor. A social cancer was all over the land. ”

“ Perhaps the country will revive the maritime and mercantile life for which the islanders are fitted by th'eir nature, ability and instincts, and once more free, like the bird that leaves its cage, like the flower that unfolds to the air, will recover the pristine virtues that are gradually dying out and will again become addicted to peace — cheerful, happy, joyous, hospitable, and daring."
We are the nation today. With courage and vision we shall be more. ”

“ We speak to the citizenry, whose sovereign will and whose rights must exist not only on paper, but in effective processes that magnify its participation in government and its enjoyment of its rights.
We speak also to the family of nations and the councils of the world, to which our national life is so intimately linked today, to which we pledge continued and abiding cooperation in efforts and programs that will truly advance the peace and progress of peoples, especially of those with whom we share the cause of reform of the international system. ”

“ We shall set upon the task of reconstructing on a new foundation the whole of our government bureaucracy — from the lowest echelons to the highest — so that we shall have once and for all, truly a government that is servant to our hopes and our needs.
Government can lead the way to building our new Republic but it cannot do the task alone. It requires us also to establish new concepts of cooperation and interaction between government and the people between communities and their leaders, between the variant sectors of our society. ”

“ This is the new beginning that we proclaim today — the awakening of our Republic to the fundamental challenge of governing our land and our people, of ministering to the cares of public life, and of redeeming every dream and every aspiration that throughout our national history has fired the hearts and minds of our people. ”

“ We shall address ourselves to the organization of government, to the engineering of change, to the management of our affairs, for this is how, fundamentally and truly, the most lofty ideals begin to be realized and come to live in society. ”

“ With the new men that will spring from their soil and with the recollection of their past, they will perhaps strive to enter freely upon the wide road of progress, and all will labor together to strengthen their fatherland, both internally and externally, with the same enthusiasm, with which a youth falls again to tilling the land of his ancestors so long wasted and abandoned through the neglect of those who have withheld it from him. ”

“ We speak to the entrepreneurs throughout our land who need, besides the maintenance of our free enterprise system, the practical assistance of government in the identification of markets, in the development of sources of labor and raw materials, in the availment of credit facilities, and in the concerted effort to free the full bounty of our resources as a nation. ”

“ Let us then call on the intransigent to realize their just purpose with us; let us awaken the unconscious and enlighten the misled; let us listen to our detractors in honest counsel. Let us bind the wounds of the past, and, in one united effort, realize the aspirations of our people. There are no outside saviors; there is only us — the Filipinos. ”

“ We speak to every family — to every man, woman and child throughout our land — whose security, well-being and advancement must be directly affected by, and be the concern of, government in practical programs that will broaden opportunities in education, health, and welfare and other human needs. ”

“ We are done with pining for all the comforts and rewards of more advanced societies. We shall now draw up our own plans in accordance with our vision and culture, to realize within our land our own program of development and progress. ”

“ We speak to our farming communities who had long been disenchanted by slogans promising land and progress and who, at last, under the 1972 program of land reform now have their own lands to till but also need the continuing assistance of their government to attain both advancement in their lives and growth in their communities. ”

“ When I look upon our history as a nation, it is this attitude to work and struggle that is truly new in our society today. It is this profession of faith above all others that shines upon our work now begin ning in our country.
Nearly a century ago, the man who was martyred on these grounds, Dr. Jose Rizal, described in words of cautious prophecy the nation that the Filipino race could become a century hence. He wrote:
"The Philippines will defend with inexpressible valor the liberty secured at the price of so much blood and sacrifice. ”

“ The rare honor that you have bestowed on me as your thrice-elected leader imposes on my person — and those closest to me — a debt, an obligation that I cannot shirk and a pledge that I dare not betray. ”

“ We speak to our working classes who need not only a greate share in the profits of production but the upgrading of skills and talents by the energetic action of government so that they may carry out the programs designed to spur the growth of our economic and social life. ”

“ Fundamentally, this is a beginning and a change not in dreams and aspiration, but in rededication and reappraisal.
For so long we have been immersed in a confused debate over Ideas and principles, when our real need was self-discipline.
We have swayed between the ideologies of the times and been entrapped in their irresoluble contention, when our attention might have been better focused infusing confidence in our people. ”

“ The helplessness of govern ment to cope with problems and its inability to prosecute national purposes and goals. We have suffered less from the failure of political ideals than from the failure to make democratic government work and prosper in our land. ”

“ We were caught, according to a popular image, between a world that was dead and a world that was too feeble to be born. We had to accelerate the birth of this New World — a Caesarean operation was required. ”