Journal. [1966]

We are in crisis. You know that the government treasury is empty.
Only by severe self-denial will there be hope for recovery within the
next year.
Our Government in the past few months has exhausted all available
domestic and foreign sources of borrowing. Our public financial institutions have been burdened to the last loanable peso. The lending
capacity of the Central Bank has been utilized to the full. Our national
government is indebted to our local governments. There are no funds
available for public works and little of the appropriations for our national government for the present fiscal year. Industry is at a standstill.
Many corporations have declared bankcruptcy. Local manufacturing
firms have been compelled to close or reduce their capacity.
Unemployment has increased. Prices of essential commodities
and services remain unstable. The availability of rice remains uncertain. Very recently the transportation companies with the sanction
of the Public Service Commission hiked their fares on the plea of survival.
1, therefore, first call upon tne public servants for self-sacrifice.
Long have we depended upon the people. In every crisis, we call upon
our citizens to bear the burden of sacrifice. Now, let the people depend
upon us. The economic viability of the Government and of the nation
requires immediate retrenchment. Accordingly, we must install without any delay a policy of rigorous fiscal restraint.
Every form of waste,-or of conspicuous consumption and extravagance, must be condemned as inimical to public welfare.
Frugality with government funds and resources must be developed
into a habit at every level of the government. High public officials
must themselves set the example.
"NE of the most galling of our inherited problems is that of lawlessness. Syndicated crime has been spawned by smuggling.
The democratic rule of law has lost all meaning and majesty, since all
men know that public officials combine with unscrupulous businessmen
to defraud the Government and the public, —with absolute impunity.
The sovereignty of the Republic has never before been so derided and
mocked as when the lawless elements, the smuggling syndicates and
their protectors, disavow the power of law and of our government over
them. This is the climate for criminality. Popular faith in the Government deteriorates.
We must, therefore, aim quickly at the establishment of a genuine
rule of law. We shall use the fullest powers of the Presidency to stop
smuggling and lawlessness.
I, therefore, call upon all to join hands with me in maintaining
the supremacy of the law. To those who flout the law, I say: This is
my constitutional duty and I am resolved to perform it. But it is not
mine alone but yours. For whether Filipino or alien, you survive under
the mantle of protection granted by our laws. I am pledged to execute
the law and preserve the Constitution of our Republic. This I shall do.
And if need be, I shall direct the forcible if legal elimination of all lawless elements.
Our social policy will seek to broaden the base of our democracy.
Our forefathers built a democratic republic on an extremely narrow
social and economic base. The task of our generation is to broaden this
base continuously. We must spread opportunities for higher incomes
for all. We must encourage investment to insure progressive production.-the true answer to our economic ills.
Our people sought a new administration in the expectation of a
meaningful change.-certainly a bolder, more courageous approach
to our problems.
They must have believed that we can provide this new outlook,
and perhaps the passion for excellence,-the motive force for greatness.
We shall provide this approach, the necessary change of pace, the
new outlook that places large demands and large challenges before the
nation. The human person is unique in creation. Of all organisms, it
is he that develops in proportion to the demands made upon his abilities.
That is true of individuals and I hold it to be true of nations.
Recently, we have come to realize that economic planning is as
essential for freedom as political planning.

Before today,we squandered thejenergies and resourcefulness of
our people. In the Government we saw a crippling hesitancy and
timidity to face the facts of our times and to boldly provide the
initiative.
We can not afford to rest on the shock of our perceptions, nor on
the outrage even of our painful admission of the facts.
We shall have to restore into our life the vitality which had been
corroded by our complacency.
IN international affairs, we shall be guided by the national interests
and by the conscience of our society in response to the dilemma
of man in the 20th century.
The Filipino today lifes in a world that is increasingly Asian, and
African as well. Asia claims one-half of all humanity, and this half
lives on a little over one-sixth of the earth's habitable surface. Africa's
millions are also now coming into their own. Recent events have shown
the willingness of our Asian friends to build a bridge to us. We can
do no less than to build strong foundations at our end.
Today, as never before, we need a new orientation toward Asia;
we must intensify the cultural identity with our ancient kin, and make
common cause with them in our drive toward prosperity End peace.
For this we require the understanding of ourselves and of Asia that
exceeds acquaintance; we require the kind of knowledge that can only
be gained through unabating scholarship on our histories, cultures,
social forces, and aspirations, and through more active interaction with
our friends and neighbors.
What threatens humanity in another area threatens our society
as well. We can not, therefore, merely contemplate the risks of our
century without coming to any decision on our own. Wherever there
is a fight for freedom we can not remain aloof from it. But whatever
decision we shall have to make will be determined by our own interests
tempered by the reasonability of that patriotic position in relation
to the international cause.
Trf'IS nation can be great again. This I have said over and over.
It is my article of faith, and Divine Providence has willed that
you and I can now translate this faith into deeds.
I have repeatedlytold you: Each generation writes its own history.
Our forebears have written theirs. With fortitude and excellence we
must write ours.
We must renew the vision of greatness for our country.
This is a vision of our people rising above the routine to face formidable challenges and overcome them. It means the rigorous pursiut
of excellence.
It is the vision of a Government that acts as the guardian of the
law's majesty, the source of justice to the weak and solace to the underprivileged, a ready friend and protector of the common man and a sensitive instrument of his advancement and not captivity.
This vision rejects and discards the inertia of centuries.
It is a vision of the jungles opening up to the farmer's tractor and
plow, and the wilderness claimed for agriculture and the support of
human life; the mountains yielding their boundless treasure; rows of
factories turning the harvests of our fields into a thousand products.
It is the transformation of the Pnilippines into a hub of progress,of trade and commerce in Southeast Asia.
It is our people bravely determining our own future. For to make
the future is the supreme act of freedom.
This is a vision that all of you share for our country's future. It is
a vision which can, and should, engage the energies of the nation. This
vision must touch the deeper layers of national vitality and energy.
We must awake the hero inherent in every man.
We must harness the wills and the hearts of all our people. We
must find the secret chords which tui n ordinary men into heroes, mediocre fighters into champions.
Not one hero alone do I ask from you,-but many; nay all. I ask
all of you to be the heroes of our nation.
Offering all our efforts to our Creator, we must drive ourselves to
be great again.
This is your dream and mine. By your choice you have committed
yourselves to it. Come then, let us march together toward the dream
of greatness.

10

THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
JaIuary, 1966