Address
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
At the Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) Awarding Ceremonies

[Delivered at the Heroes’ Hall, Malacañang, July 16, 1993]

The morality of aspiration

SINCE THE Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) Awards were established in 1959, it has been the tradition for the President of the Philippines to present the awards every given year. I join you here today to answer the call of tradition. But I also consider it an opportunity to express my personal congratulations and admiration to our awardees here today.

There are awards and awards given every year here in our country. There are awards, for example, that are given in recognition of exemplary acting in the movies. And there are awards that we give in recognition of action itself.

I believe you will agree with me that our awards today are of the second kind. And our awardees are no tiling if not men of action and achievement. These awards are all the more significant because they honor compatriots who, while still young, are already outstanding in their chosen fields of endeavor.

The pursuit of excellence

While looking with one eye at their records of past achievements, we cast the other eye toward the future. In honoring what they have accomplished, we also look with excitement and hope at what is still to come.

At this time when our country is striving valiantly to move forward, I believe there can be no greater ideal to raise before our people than the pursuit of excellence.

The chief distinction of our awardees today is that they know how to accomplish what so many others merely advocate or are in favor of. They have the gift to bridge the great divide between desire and achievement, between planning and implementation, between hope and realization.

Throughout my first year in the Presidency—as a consequence of various commemorations—I have often spoken of the quite remarkable fact that our country was raised to nationhood by the strivings of countrymen who were only in their twenties and early thirties. To this day, who of us can fail to marvel at the fact that Rizal was in his twenties when he wrote the Noli and the Fili and set fire to our national revolution? That Bonifacio was a very young man when he founded the Katipunan? Or that Gregorio del Pilar was barely past his teens when he led an army in our war for independence?

“What can I do?”

Indeed, we are an even younger country today than we were in 1896 at the outbreak of our national revolution. Younger in the sense that our people today are predominantly young Filipinos. And young also because our national preoccupations are not those that come upon a country in maturity. We are still struggling for virtually the same things—order, progress and justice in our land—that the generation of Rizal and Bonifacio fought for.

And we are tortured by the thought that after leading the way for republican government in Asia a century ago, we have fallen behind our neighbors who came upon their nationhood much later than we did.

In this story of failure and decline, many of us have been disposed to blame government and politics. For the most part, this is fair and just. Government has betrayed more hopes in this country than we can count. And our politics has done more to divide us, than unite us, for the struggles at hand.

But let us also not miss the other part of the story. Throughout our history, it has also been our custom, whenever we faced a problem, to ask: “What is Government going to do?” Rarely have we asked: “What can I do? What can I contribute in order to get this problem solved?”

In the story of societies and individuals, it has been said, there are two kinds of morality. One is the morality of law, and the other is the morality of aspiration. The morality of law requires the individual to do what the law—God-given or man-made—calls upon him to do or forbids him to do. The morality of aspiration does not require; it inspires the individual to go beyond what the law ordinarily requires and do all within his powers to excel and achieve.

The yardstick of aspiration

By the yardstick of law, a nation can already achieve much in the way of order and stability, if all obey the laws of God and man. But it is the yardstick of aspiration that thrusts a society from mediocrity into greatness. It constitutes the difference between dragons and lambs in the fate of nations. As I see it, the chief service of these awards—and awards like these—is to remind us of this morality of aspiration and excellence.

To become the nation we can be, it is not enough that we desist from what the law forbids us to do—we must strive for more and better. As with individuals, so as a nation: We must strive to become the best that we can be.

When we launched this Administration’s program for “Philippines 2000,” I was told over and over that my vision was too ambitious, that I was virtually shooting for the moon. I have been reminded that there are too many things in this country that need repair, that our poverty problem is massive and that there is only so much we can achieve in six years.

My reply to such defeatism is simply this: We have contented ourselves for too long with very small goals and objectives. We have been too used to failure in our midst that to dare for such status as a newly industrializing country by the year 2000 is seen as wishful thinking. But then, I ask you, if we don’t aspire for the heights now, when will progress ever happen in this country? When will we ever dare?

I do believe that defeatism in our country is rooted not in the individual capabilities of the Filipino, but in our lack of faith in our national community. For when we look at the individual Filipino, he is indisputably an achiever—talented, resourceful and creative. Consider, for instance, what compatriots like Lea Salonga have conquered in the international community. Consider how Filipinos today stand at the commanding heights of many corporations all over Asia. And consider also how our overseas workers are contributing greatly to the development of other societies—often exceeding their hosts in skills.

Why we have fallen behind

In my travels to foreign capitals, I have often been asked why the Philippines falters so badly, when Filipinos are so gifted and well trained. This is a difficult question to answer. But I think the basic fact is that we Filipinos have not yet succeeded in transferring to the nation itself our great gifts and talents as individuals. What we strive and achieve with such creativity for ourselves, our families and our corporations, we have never invested in our country as well.

This, to my mind, is why we have fallen behind. That is why we falter in the midst of the riches of our human and natural resources.

If we are to turn things around in our country, we must awaken, and reinforce the bonds between ourselves and our nation. Call it patriotism or pagkakaisa—or call it envy of our neighbors. The reality is that we will not get anywhere unless we learn to share, care and dare for our country. Mark these words—sharing, caring and daring—for they should guide the future endeavors of this and future crops of outstanding young Filipinos.

Change will never happen if we are imprisoned in our self-serving, or tayo-tayo, attitudes. On the other hand, if we act nobly and boldly, others will also be inspired to act nobly and boldly. Noble acts have a multiplier effect that in the end help to transform entire societies.

Law alone will not do what we aspire to achieve for our country. But the earnest and energetic actions of individuals will. This to me is the enduring significance of these awards.

In this spirit then, I pay tribute to these Ten Outstanding Young Filipinos (TOYF), aware of how your pursuit of excellence helps to propagate a culture of this ideal among our countrymen.

From TOYM to TOYF

I commend the Philippine Jaycees, the TOYM Foundation, the Gerry Roxas Foundation and the Development Bank of the Philippines for this outstanding program of public service. I urge all of you and the 302 Jaycee chapters nationwide and the members of your four organizations to continue to lead the way in our quest for modernization, excellence and progress.

I also urge you to change the program’s title from TOYM to TOYF, in recognition of the outstanding young Filipino women who do just as well as the young men. After all, women make up the majority of our population.

Everything we do—individually and collectively—to promote quality, excellence and service has a ripple effect on our national life. And from the sum of all our actions, “Philippines 2000” will soon become reality.