Ramos

“ Because they know what kind of people you are; because they have heard of your ardent piety and your valor. I don’t envy the first ones who lay hands on our priests and our religion. Of course it is not necessary to say that, if they are not stopped in time, they will commit atrocities. Poor Spain, so holy and so meek and so good! Who would have believed she would ever arrive at such extremities! But I maintain that impiety will not triumph, no. There are courageous people still; there are people still like those of old. Am I not right, Señor Ramos? ”

“ And Felipe Rivera, the scrubber for the Revolution, continued, as occasion arose, to lay down gold and silver for the Junta's use.
And still they could not bring themselves to like him. They did not know him. His ways were not theirs. He gave no confidences. He repelled all probing. Youth that he was, they could never nerve themselves to dare to question him.
“A great and lonely spirit, perhaps, I do not know, I do not know,” Arrellano said helplessly.
“He is not human,” said Ramos.
“His soul has been seared,” said May Sethby. “Light and laughter have been burned out of him. ”

“ Robustiano will not venture to come to Orbajosa, because he owes me a trifle. You can tell him that I forgive him the six dollars and a half. These poor people who sacrifice themselves with so little. Is it not so, Señor Don Inocencio?”
“Our good Ramos here tells me,” answered the canon, “that his friends are displeased with him for his lukewarmness; but that, as soon as they see that he has decided, they will all put the cartridge-box in their belts.”
“What, have you decided to take to the roads?” said the mistress. ”

“ My little nephew Juan, who is thirteen, will guard the house, and we shall see, nephew for nephew, which is the best man.”
“We all know already what your boasting and bragging signify,” replied Doña Perfecta. “Poor Ramos! You want to pretend to be very brave when we have already had proof that you are not worth any thing.” ”

“ In this gravity, going to Lester's place was a floating glide rather than a walk. Along a covered causeway, into a huge dome, up a wall with handholds, onto a wispy balcony. Nelsen and Ramos brought liquor and roses.
Much of what followed was painful and familiar—in a fantastic setting. Two young people, recently married, struggling with problems that they hadn't been able to plan for very well. ”

“ But what happens if I attack him? He discovers who I am, he falls upon me with the soldiers, and good-bye to Caballuco. As for giving him a treacherous blow, that is something I couldn’t do; nor would Doña Perfecta consent to it, either. For a stab in the dark Cristobal Ramos is not the man.”
“But are you crazy, man? What are you thinking about?” said the Penitentiary, with unmistakable signs of astonishment. “Not even in thought would I advise you to do an injury to that gentleman. I would cut my tongue out before I would advise such a piece of villany. The wicked will fall, it is true ”

“ His fingers supported his chin, wrinkling up the brown skin, unshaven for the past three days.
“Did Caballuco say he would come here to supper to-night?” he asked his niece.
“Yes, señor, he will come. It is in a respectable house like this that the poor fellow is most secure.”
“Well, I am not altogether easy in my mind, in spite of the respectability of the house,” answered the Penitentiary. “How the brave Ramos exposes himself! And I am told that in Villahorrenda and the surrounding country there are a great many men. I don’t know how many men——What have you heard?” ”

“ Finally, he shouted out in the pulpit that religion had no longer any defenders.”
“Here is the great Cristobal Ramos!” said Doña Perfecta, clapping the Centaur on the back. “He mounts his horse and rides about in the Plaza and up and down the high-road to attract the attention of the soldiers; when they see him they are terrified at the fierce appearance of the hero, and they all run away, half-dead with fright.”
Doña Perfecta ended with an exaggerated laugh, which the profound silence of her hearers made still more irritating. Caballuco was pale. ”

“ The pole-vaulting strategy I have articulated is the Ramos Administration's legacy to future administrations. The tasks it sets for both government and civil society may take not just years but decades to realize in their fullness. Carrying out the pole-vaulting strategy is inherently the shared responsibility of all levels of government and of all sectors of society. ”

“ The Supreme Court held in Ramos that the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico's consent to be made a defendant in an action in federal court was a waiver of its right to later assert eleventh amendment immunity.↑ 3 Defendants have not yet answered the State of Oregon's complaint. The State of Oregon is the sole party aligned against defendants. ”

“ He seemed to be the leader, and he was raking down the untractable Ramos who had evidently ventured to irritate him with some rash suggestion. His voice trailed off as the group walked toward a dark smudge a hundred yards or so away which Bill thought might be a cabin.
“An armored car!” ”

“ Ned still loves me; never stopped loving me. That's what makes it all seem crazy as a hashish-eater's dream. He was on the loose in New Orleans, doing the town with a crowd of local boys, and prob'bly had too many Ramos fizzes. Then he barged into this Creole dame's place, and——" she broke off with a gallant effort at a smile. "I guess young fellows aren't so different nowadays than they were when you were growing up, sir. Only today we don't believe in sprinkling perfume in the family cesspool. Ned cheated, that's the bald truth of it ”

“ At our Centennial in 1998, I want to see, as surely you do, our people in command of their destiny, secure in their values -- yet creative enough, audacious enough to meet new challenges with productive solutions. I want to see, as surely you of the Tenth Congress also do, the beauty and richness of our land and our seas fully restored -- a gift from this -- our -- generation to the future ones. ”

“ As Rizal foresaw, the time has come to tell ourselves that if we wish to be saved, we must redeem ourselves. And in this work of self redemption, we must "expend the whole light of our intellect, and the pulse of our hearts." ”

“ Sacrifices will be asked of every sector of society. But I am not daunted, because crisis has a cleansing fire which makes heroes out of ordinary people and can transform a plodding society into a tiger. ”

“ God helps those who help themselves. Our economic turnaround is an achievement created -- with God's help -- by our people's labor and will. All that government can justly claim is that it has begun to create the environment in which business can flourish, and workers can create wealth, and secure for themselves a just share of it. ”

“ And, whatever we do, we must not allow growth to slow down -- because only sustained development will enable us to finally wipe out Filipino poverty. And we cannot allow our democracy to wither -- because Philippine democracy is our unique comparative advantage in the new global order. Only democracy can release the spirit of enterprise and creativity among our people, and without freedom, economic growth is meaningless. ”

“ To do that, we must understand how far rebels are motivated by people's frustrations over their inability to break through the barriers and patterns of oligarchic power that control their lives. Only then can we redress -- once and for all -- the imbalance in national society between the few who are rich and the many who are poor. ”

“ Generations of our heroes — from Sultan Kudarat to Jose Rizal — speak to us across history of the strength that unity can confer on any people.
Yet we Filipinos have always found unity difficult — even in the face of our crises of survival.
We were conquered by colonizers because we did not know our own strength.
Today, in the midst of our trials, we must learn how strong we can be — if only we stand together. This nation, which is the collective sum of our individual aspirations, cannot remain divided by distrust and suspicion. ”

“ Once upon a time, democracy was a millstone around our neck. Both those who sought to subvert the Philippine State -- and those who sought to stop reform -- used democracy's means to bring Philippine democracy down. Philippine-style democracy is our competitive edge today -- because democracy -- by awakening and mobilizing ordinary people to the possibilities of their lives -- enlarges tremendously our talent pool of enterprise, knowledge and productivity. ”

“ Today we can truly claim we have given our country that fresh start. We have arrested the decline -- of the economy and the national spirit -- which had so demoralized our people. We are concluding a just and honorable peace with the military rebels, the insurgents and the Southern secessionists. A new spirit of cooperation existing between Congress and the Presidency has avoided the gridlock which obstructed policy-making in previous administrations. ”

“ But let us not forget that the democratic way -- by enlarging the latitude for debate and dissension -- also demands harder work, greater cohesiveness -- and social responsibility -- from every one of us. If our democracy is to adapt to the dynamism -- of society, culture and politics -- which is the wave of the future, then it must become more pervasive, more participatory. ”

“ Keeping productivity and effective land use uppermost on our minds, let us set clear targets and do what is practicable.
Let us be firm about the paramount object of our labors. It is to uproot the poverty that grips our land and blights the lives of so many of our people. ”

“ We have defined our culture in terms of jealous provincialism: it is time we defined it in terms of pride and linkage -- taking what we can from the best of others, and giving what we can of our best to them. ”

“ I say it is written even more vividly in the lives of individual Filipinos and their communities. Growth corridors, clusters and centers all over the country are stirring ordinary Filipinos to new vigor -- new ventures -- new lives for themselves and their children. There still is great poverty among us, but every time we touch one family with our livelihood and social-service programs; every time a quality job gives one worker a higher sense of dignity; every time we transform a Smokey Mountain into a decent place for human beings, then we loosen the iron grip poverty has on our people. ”

“ We have to learn to talk of growth not in terms of statistics, but in terms of people: in the child we save from hunger and raise to knowledge, in the citizen we raise to a life of dignity and well-being, in the woman we raise to her true place in our society, in the community that we transform from distress into a net contributor to national vitality, and in a national culture that truly reflects and appreciates the native talent and resourcefulness of the Filipino. ”

“ And when our collaboration shall have produced the prosperity and well-being of our people and our country, then might we say we have lived up to the sacred oaths with which we entered office. And our people will say to us - well done. ”

“ Third, our people spoke of their faith that we Filipinos can be greater than the sum of all the problems that confront us; that we can climb higher than any summit we have already scaled.
We cannot but interpret the vote as a summons; for us to unite and face the future together. The people are not looking for scapegoats, but for the basic things to get done — and get done quickly.
Let us begin by telling ourselves the truth. Our nation is in trouble. ”

“ These, then, are the civic tasks for which we need your expertise, your industry, and your dedication. Our end-goal must be to lay the groundwork for the Philippines to become a thoroughly modern country, at peace with itself and with its neighbors, and where the least among our people have the decent minimum of material goods to realize the full possibilities of their lives. ”

“ Only then can we make economic growth meaningful to the masses of our people. We are at a critical hour in our life as a nation. Depending on how we act, our country shall either prosper or falter. Depending on how well we match our words with deeds, our nation shall enter into its second century dragged down by crisis and factionalism -- or raised by achievement and pride. Our history teaches us that the exercise of power must be guided by principle. For power exercised without principle is ruthless, and principle without the exercise of power cannot move our nation forward. ”

“ Now that we can afford to think beyond our people's immediate needs, we as national leaders must learn to look beyond the politician's perspective. We must learn to plan and prepare -- not just for the next election, but for the next generation. We must learn to look to what the world -- the region -- and the Philippines -- would be like -- not just over the next Presidential term but over the next 10-15 years. ”

“ Foremost among our concerns must be to bind the wounds of the election campaign and restore civility to political competition, for our people are weary of the intrigues and petty rivalries that have kept us down. ”

“ Most crucial of all, we must pursue our earlier efforts towards a more disciplined, cohesive and convergent bureaucracy, and make our civil service an effective instrument of the modern state. We must improve government services to the people by cutting bureaucratic red tape. A professional bureaucracy requires government to compete with the private sector for talented people. ”