Manuel Roxas

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Although some of our fellow citizens are prospering in trade and commerce, the Government is receiving an income which, if we were unable to borrow money, would require us to abandon our Army, disband our military police, shut down half of our schools, suspend our health activities, our aids to agriculture, our public works, and dismiss two-thirds of our civil service employees. ”

“ In some cases the local police are seriously remiss in their duties. I have recommended on many occasions, to numerous municipalities, that it is better that the local police be reduced in number but paid sufficiently to assure absolute honesty. I would rather have a police force of two honest men in a town than a police force of 20 men of uncertain integrity.
In my message to the Congress on the state of the nation in June, last year, I proposed that the Military Police Command be eventually converted into a civilian police force under the Department of the Interior. ”

“ In some cases, one group has had to be curtailed in its quest for power or profit in order to promote the welfare of the people as a whole. Yet all the groups know or should know that the Government weighs the interests of each, finally using as the touchstone of desirability the abiding welfare of the entire Filipino people.
The inertia, which we found in the Government eight months ago, has been overcome. Most government agencies have been assigned their individual problems in connection with rehabilitation and reconstruction. ”

“ Our livestock industry requires rehabilitation.
Too many of our farmers till small plots of land in congested areas while too few are settled in our vast undeveloped areas. Too many farmers are tenants rather than owners of the lands they till. Too many of our citizens do not own the houses and homes in which they live. The cost of living is still too high.
The present degree of inflation is still excessive and abnormal.
Too much of the energy of our businessmen is going into buy-and-sell, and not enough into production for consumption or export. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Yet we also adhere to our primary relationship with the United States of America, a nation which gave us our II freedom, and which is doing so much to preserve it. We must preserve at all costs our intimate relationship with that great country, which stands today as the champion of our principles in world affairs. ”

“ The Government will give every support to the propagation of the national language so that it may truly become, along with English, a common vehicle of communication among our people.
In view of the mutuality of our defense interests with those of the United States, I propose, at this session of Congress, that legislation be enacted permitting the enlistment of Filipino citizens in the American armed forces without forfeiture of citizenship. At the present time members of the Philippine Scouts and other Filipinos in the armed forces of the United States automatically lose their citizenship. ”

“ A good share of the allocations for reconstruction of public buildings will be devoted to the reconstruction of our schools and of the University of the Philippines.
Under the United States cultural relations program, teachers, scientists and professors will be sent here from the United States. We should be ready, as soon as we can, independently to hire teachers from abroad and establish a school of physical science, and a department of industrial management. We must stimulate further scientific research, not only in our university but also in our government laboratories. ”

“ Although we have relative prosperity in the marts of commerce, although the copra and abaca industries are relatively flourishing, our national income is still far below the minimum levels required for national existence. We still import three to four times the value of what we export, the difference being made up by the visible expenditures of United States Government agencies in the Philippines. We must rebuild our sugar mills, our coconut mills and our cigar factories and resume in as brief a time as possible our export of sugar, coconut oil and cigars to the United States. ”

“ I have directed every agency of the Government to cooperate in the program of extending to our veterans every assistance authorized by law so that these men who: performed so valiantly in our country’s darkest hour may have an equal opportunity to rehabilitate themselves and to assume their proper place in the life of the nation they did so much to preserve. ”

“ The Government’s sole purpose is to insure the producers a fair return. The purpose is not to compete with private buyers, middlemen or exporters in the acquisition of copra, abaca or other commodities. In line with our general agricultural program, the Government is intensifying its studies of new products such as ramie fiber, which can be produced in many places in the Philippines and marketed abroad. We are also stimulating the production of cotton, peanuts, rubber, cacao, cashew nuts, and soybeans for local consumption and for export. ”

“ We must accelerate our geological surveys and provide adequate funds for them so as to locate new sources of minerals and other geological materials for the use of industries and mills. We must rehabilitate our fishing industry not only with boats acquired from the United States but by the construction of fishing boats in this country.
The United States Government, under the terms of the Tydings Rehabilitation Act, will itself carry out a large-scale program designed to promote our fishing industry. Fishermen will be trained in scientific and practical fishing techniques. ”

“ The United States War Damage Commission, after a necessarily slow start, is now getting into a position where it can begin to make some payments to private individuals and to make allocations to the National Government for repair and reconstruction of public facilities.
It may be necessary for the Congress to consider the imposition of controls on the allocation of building materials, and on the prices which can be charged for construction services, once money becomes available for reconstruction work. ”

“ This has been a leading factor in the progress we have made toward a restoration of normalcy in the labor field. The Government has had the cooperation, in this, of both labor and management. A continuation of this situation is absolutely vital to continued progress in rehabilitation. I assure organized labor, and all men who work, that the Government will do them justice. The Government stands ready to mediate any labor dispute or any threatened labor dispute. That is an essential function of government. ”

“ An agrarian reform program has been begun. The 70-30 formula for the division of the rice crop between tenant and landowner is being enforced everywhere. Church estates are in process of being purchased for redistribution to tenants. Plans are being made for waterpower development and expansion of irrigation systems.
We are beginning to mechanize production of rice. We have made available for sale to private individuals and have disposed to government entities more than 1,000 tractors obtained in surplus property from the United States. Many have already been sold. ”

“ Our government revenues are one-third of our authorized expenditures.
Speedy rehabilitation is necessary for our sugar, lumber, coconut oil, tobacco, cigar, and mining industries.
Our economy is too much dependent on expenditures here by the United States, chiefly by the U. S. Army and Navy.
Our agricultural methods, still largely dependent on the hand-plow and the carabao, must be modernized. Many of our farmers are even without work animals. ”

“ All surplus property that is not required by government agencies and subdivisions is being sold to the general public, with a general priority for our veterans. We have received an average return of over 25 per cent of the procurement cost on sales made up to now. The returns from these sales are being assigned, as provided by law, to the Rehabilitation Finance Corporation to serve as capital assets. Small boats and watercraft being given us as surplus property can be converted into fishing vessels, or be used for short-haul passenger and cargo transport. ”

“ The Government is helpless to do anything at this time to raise the general standard of wages and salaries. Every centavo, which we have or can obtain, is needed for essential public purposes. We are doing our best to make every possible saving and to reduce expenditures in order to stretch out our available funds over as many functions as possible. Many activities and undertakings duly authorized by Congress cannot be carried out because of lack of funds. ”

“ One practice, which must be halted, is dynamiting. Increased penalties must be provided against this vicious, selfish and unpatriotic method of catching fish. The United States Government is providing an overall training program for 500 Filipino students annually in the merchant marine, mineralogy, meteorology, fisheries, highway engineering, harbor engineering, and like fields of endeavor. These trainees are being named by me, subject to examinations, and in accordance with qualifications set up by the responsible United States agencies. ”

“ We have successfully fought the black market and our people are assured of an adequate rice supply this year. We have set up a system of rationing of rice and other commodities in centers of population, a system which has been kept free of graft and corruption.
We are enforcing a rent control Act passed by the last session of Congress, resulting in a decrease in rentals in some cases, and an increase in government revenues through higher assessments in others. Ousters of tenants in efforts to increase rental returns have been curtailed. ”

“ Just as we have high ideals, we must have high aspirations. We have on our side the proven courage of our people; we have in our young veterans and in our youth an ample reserve of ii patriotic manpower to carryon the battle with fierce and fervid devotion ”

“ I shall continue to follow this practice. Politics must halt at the water’s edge. There must be no partisan considerations in our conduct of affairs with other nations. To the world we must present a united, indivisible and determined front. ”

“ We must, therefore, realize that we cannot at this time do justice to all the deserving. We are trying, by every means at our command, to bring down the cost of living, so that present wages and salaries will be somewhat more adequate to meet essential requirements of livelihood. ”

“ It must be remembered that as we are now obtaining in government income only about one-third of our authorized expenditures, the remainder of our needs must be met by borrowing. Every peso that we spend above our income is a debt, which we must surely repay. ”