Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
At the Launching of the Year of the Filipino Spirit
Delivered at the Quirino Grandstand, January 28, 1997]
Renewing the
Filipino spirit
IN THIS FINAL YEAR before we mark the centennial of our proclamation of national independence, it is fitting that we should dedicate the year 1997 in remembrance and renewal of the spirit that set us free. So we are gathered here today—under the umbrella of the National Centennial Commission—to proclaim 1997 as the “Year of the Filipino Spirit.”
A great statesman once said that a nation has “something deeper, something more permanent, something larger than the sum of all its parts . . . something which matters most to its future.” That something is its spirit, which is unique to it because it is born of the race and the product of centuries.
An epic struggle to be free
The spirit of the Filipino race did not just emerge with the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution in 1896 or the proclamation of national independence in 1898. Rather, as Ninoy Aquino wrote from his prison cell, it was shaped by our long history of “epic struggle to end oppression and to be free.”
From the heroic stand against Spanish conquest by Lapu-lapu in Mactan 476 years ago to the explosion of People Power at EDSA in February 1986, the Filipino spirit has been embodied in one word: freedom.
Along the way, our people and our country have been conquered, enslaved, trampled upon—sometimes by others, sometimes by our own leaders—but the Filipino spirit never perished. Again and again, it rose—shaking up the citadels of those who sought to rule against our people’s will and signifying for all the indubitable imprint of individual freedom and of our nationhood.
If today we stand as a nation secure in our independence and winning the respect and good will of the world, it is because we have kept faith with this priceless legacy.
A home in every Filipino breast
Many words have been written of this spirit that binds us as a people, but perhaps none are more moving than those of Andres Bonifacio, who wrote:
Aling pag-ibig pa ang hihigit kaya,
sa pagkadalisay at pagkadakila
gaya ng pag-ibig sa tinubuang lupa?
aling pag-ibig pa? Wala na nga, wala.
Walang mahalagang hindi inihandog
ng may pusong mahal sa bayang pagkupkop
dugo, yaman, dunong, katiisan at pagod,
buhay ma’y abuting
magkalagot-lagot.
His words remind us how patriotism and love of freedom found a home in every Filipino breast—rich and poor, young and old, high and lowly. They tell us how we became one people and one nation.
Pag-ibig sa Inang Bayan ay katumbas sa pag-ibig sa Diyos, pag-ibig sa kapwa at pag-ibig sa kalikasan. Ito ang diwang Pilipino ang diwa na nagpakilos sa ating mga kababayan noong rebolusyon ng 1896 kung saan ang ating mga ninuno, sa kabila man ng pasulpot-sulpot o ang paminsan-minsang di pagkakaunawaan, ay nagka-isa at nakibaka tungo sa pagtagumpay.
Now we stand on the eve of our rational centennial and on the edge of a new century. One chapter will soon close and a new one will begin. Because the world has turned over many times over this century—and modern life with its technology is very different from what it was during the birth of our nation—some of us may imagine that Rizal, Bonifacio, Aguinaldo and our other heroes have little to offer us save the memory of their deeds. And that to make our way in the world, there is little that history can teach us.
Breaking the shackles of the past
To think thus is to miss the point of celebrating our centennial of independence. Such commemoration presents us with the opportunity to renew ourselves us a nation. The challenges that face us now echo the challenges that shaped the birth of our republic: How do we hold our people and our nation together in order to master the problems and challenges before us? How do we employ our numbers and resources now to fulfill our potential and win the future?
In the pages of our history, we find stirring lessons of how we must transcend the divisions of region, religion and ethnic origin and social status in order to forge a future together. Lessons of how we must dare to break the shackles of the past in order to create new hope for the future. Lessons of how we must master the art of governing ourselves in order to master the problems that plague the nation.
Our rich legacy of heroism and freedom is the foundation on which we must build our future stability and prosperity.
Some of us think that emulation of our heroes is obsolete wisdom and corny rhetoric in this age when men and women are reaching for the stars. I would remind them of the words of Mabini: “Let us never forget that we are called upon to rise, and can go upward only on the ladder of virtue and heroism. . . . If we do not grow, we shall have died without ever having been great, unable to reach maturity.
Like other people who reached the pinnacle of greatness, so will we grow in emulation of those who made us all proud to be Filipinos. For whatever our forebears were, we too can be in our own way and in our own time.
Last year, we implemented Proclamation 510 declaring 1996 as the Year of the Filipino Heroes in celebration of our national Revolution. The celebration climaxed with the 100th anniversary of Rizal’s martyrdom which we marked last December 30th. Through the reenactment of significant historical events, we recollect and rededicate ourselves to the grand vision that gave birth to the nation.
Sources of the national tradition
When we speak of the Filipino spirit, we speak of the essential qualities of our people that have shaped us into the nation that emerged in 1898 and the nation we are today.
Writing on our Filipino national tradition back in the sixties, the historian Horacio de la Costa distilled five principles from the sum of our experiences as a people. And these he said are: pagsasarili, pakikisama, pagkakaisa, pagkabayani and pakikipagkapwa-tao.
Pagsasarili because we Filipinos ardently believe in self-reliance.
Pakikisama because we Filipinos believe in the equitable sharing of goods and services in a spirit of partnership.
Pagkakaisa because we Filipinos believe we cannot get anything done on a national scale unless we pull together as a team.
Pagkabayani because we Filipinos believe that no sacrifice can be too great for our country.
And pakikipagkapwa-tao because we Filipinos know that no man is an island; we are all brothers and sisters to one another.
Looking at our history, again and again we see how these five principles have become indubitable marks of the Filipino spirit—taking us to feats of greatness in the deeds of our forebears, and leaving us in crisis when they deserted us.
Upon the salutary working of these five principles, we have become the nation we are today. And depending on how we make them reign in our personal and collective life, so will we master the challenges of the present and the future.
Today as we bid for the full rewards of development and peace in our country and a place in a highly competitive global economy, I do not doubt that our success lies in the renewal of these pillars of the Filipino spirit. For in this way can we join together—government and citizenry, and all the sectors together—in a concerted effort to fulfill the promise of freedom and democracy
In many ways we can already say that we are not entirely unworthy of our heritage. In the face of the challenges of our own time we have surely acquitted ourselves in restoring freedom and democracy in our land and in bringing our country back on the road to economic and social progress.
But the work is not done. Many problems remain. And there are new challenges at our doors.
Our reserves of strength
Today poverty continues to degrade the lives of millions of our countrymen and countrywomen even as our economy responds to the call of enterprise and industry. And our social reforms are not yet being fully enjoyed by a good number of our people.
Today crime and factionalism still lacerate our society even as we have succeeded in building political stability throughout our land.
Today we face intensive competition in the global economy even as we have succeeded in putting our house in order and in restoring the national economy to health.
But these challenges we can meet if we turn again to the reserves of strength in the national spirit. And if we remember always what we can do once we apply ourselves as a united team against each challenge.
It is said that each generation must strive to do more because it stands on the shoulders of giants in the preceding generations. From that vantage point, it can see the future better. And it can build better structures because it has much to build on.
This is the heart of our task as the fourth generation of Filipinos to emerge since the birth of the nation nearly a century ago. The spirit that made us free also gives us the means to write a new and exciting chapter in our history.
We all clamor for reform, we all clamor for a better life, but as Rizal said in his essay “The Indolence of the Filipinos,” “the success of the nation rests on a government made able by a noble citizenry. If we want progress, then each and every one of us must do his share to make it happen.”
Everyone must do his share
Kaya natin umasenso kung talagang gugustuhin natin.
When we bring it down to practice, the Filipino spirit really means saying, “Kaya natin ito.” It is a can-do mentality that will brook no momentary obstacle or problem. As the Filipino spirit freed us from foreign domination and our own weaknesses, so now it must enable us to realize the dream of a just, peaceful and prosperous society.
So on this day of rededication—on these hallowed grounds where Rizal met martyrdom and fired the flames of revolution—let us face the challenges of the hour and lift our sights to the future. Let us appraise our own part in giving purpose and meaning to our republic and accept it—and do it!—as our own opportunity and responsibility.
And with the heroism of our forebears to inspire us, with our just accomplishments to spur us and with God’s grace, let us move on to greater heights in our nation’s history.