Proceedings of the first Independence congress : held in the city of Manila, Philippine islands, February 22-26, 1930 / Published under the direction of Dean maximo M. Kalaw, executive secretary, University of the Philippines.

252 INDEPENDENCE CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS

The second speaker was the Honorable Filemon
Perez, Secretary of Commerce and Communications.
He read the following paper:
THE NATIONALIZATION OF OUR HIGHWAYS
By the HON. FILEMON PEREZ,
Secretary, Department of Commerce and Communications.
MR. PRESIDENT, GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS:
For two powerful motives I have willingly accepted the invitation extended to me to speak before this solemn assembly:
First, because it treats of an act of tremendous transcendency,
which will be recorded in history as one of the definite movements of our people in their fight for the conquest of the
supreme ideal; and secondly, because with it I am offered an
excellent opportunity to plan a fundamental question intimately related with the problem of our material and economic
development considered as a condition essential to the existence
of a country which aspires to be independent.
I refer, gentlemen, to the necessity of formulating a systematic
and well-organized program for the construction of highways,
bridges, and harbors, piers and other improvements for the
promotion of commerce, of agriculture, and of the industries
of the country; but a vast and integral program, conceived from
the truly national point of view and having for its basic beginning the general convenience of the nation, more than the local
or particular interest of each region or district.
My actual experience in the Department of Commerce and
Communications has taught me different things, and one of
them is the firm conviction which I possess that the time has
come to adopt a definite orientation in the sense which I have
pointed out, if we wish to get the greatest possible benefit of
our investments in public improvements for the fostering of
commerce, and if we wish to prepare ourselves to face the
contacts which the change of political status might bring to
these Islands.