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.

FIRST PLENARY SESSION

25

the contrary from it we have derived, to a great extent, our
vehement passion for our own liberty. May we be allowed
to confide that in the final solution of the Filipino problem the
American people has inspired us not in the egoistic norms of
modern commercialism, but in the liberal spirit, pure and disinterested, of Washington's time.
The last speaker at the first plenary session was the
Honorable Sergio Osmenia President Pro-Tempore of
the Philippine Senate. He spoke as follows:
ADDRESS OF SENATOR SERGIO OSMERA
MR. PRESIDENT, PEOPLE OF THE CONGRESS, LADIES AND
GENTLEMEN:
The spectacle presented by this Congress is both beautiful
and instructive. Having come from almost all provinces
and from all walks of life with titles which bespeak individual
merits, you are convened in this grand assembly in order to
deliberate on the greatest of problems which we Filipinos face,
the problem of our freedom. Here are, among others, the
elements of yesterday and of today, of war and of peace, of
agriculture and of commerce, of industry and of labor, the
representatives of the land, the leaders of thought and the professionals. You have not come for the sake of other men, or
of a party, or of a group. You have come as Filipinos inspired
by a high sense of responsibility, resolved to forget resentments,
feuds, distrusts, and suspicions to show that, above all of this,
above your troubles as men, are the interests of the nation. If
you decide to adopt resolutions about important cases without
any discords, as it should be, such an act will constitute another
proof of the advancement we have reached along national
solidarity in the thirty years of political and social education
after the Revolution.
The timeliness of this Congress is made evident by. some
recent deeds which you still remember. As soon as the
preamble of the Jones Law was approved and the world war
was finished, we organized the Independence Commission in
order to negotiate with the American authorities, but with the