INTRODUCTION
Hindi lamang pala sa precision flying magaling ang timing ng air force; magaling din ang timing pati na sa pangungumbida.

Kauna-unahan kong speaking engagement ito buhat nang ako’y nanumpang pangulo noong makalawa lamang.

Hari nawa’y maswerteng buena mano ang Philippine Air Force.

The truth is I would not have missed being here. I am sincerely happy to join you celebrate your 45th anniversary; and I must thank General Loven Abadia for his gracious invitation.

Let me also congratulate the members of Class 1992 who have just been awarded their Philippine Air Force wings this morning. You are entering a service with a heroic tradition — and the Filipino people expect everyone of you to live up to it.
A HERITAGE OF HEROISM
Even before its formal founding as a major command of the armed forces of the Philippines in 1947, our air force had accumulated a heritage of heroism from its pioneer pilots of the Pacific War.

Today, it is carrying on that heroic heritage — not just in the government’s counterinsurgency campaign but also in the more recent seven failed coup attempts that used to pester us since the People Power Revolution in February 1986 at EDSA.

And we are all familiar with its peacetime role of search and rescue; its humanitarian airlifts of food, medicines and medical units to disaster-stricken areas; and, its cloud-seeding operations during the dry season.

In short, the air force is an institution, whose dependability, quiet courage, technical competence and steadfastness our country has learned to count on.

For all that, this nation is grateful — and I have come here, on its behalf, to thank you.

I also came to assure you that my government appreciates the importance of air power in the emerging security configuration in Southeast Asia.

We are acutely aware of our urgent need to modernize the Philippine Air Force in technical terms — to bring it abreast with the air capabilities of the other Southeast Asian powers.
NEW REGIONAL SECURITY REALITIES
The end of the cold war may have eased the danger of a nuclear confrontation between the superpowers. But, ironically, the loosening of big-power tensions makes more likely the breaking-out of regional quarrels as we are now witnessing in Europe.

Fortunately, there are no serious local quarrels threatening our part of the world. I think we can in fact safely redefine East Asia’s security in economic terms.

Securing continued access to markets and technology must become the most vital — and common — concern of our country as well as of our regional partners. And this common concern we can best deal with cooperatively, through the Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) nations and similar supranational groupings.

ASEAN has played a stabilizing role vis-a-vis Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Economically, ASEAN gives our Southeast Asian states the umbrella-organization for negotiating trade and technology with both the European Community and the emerging North American Free Trade Association.

Here at home too, the capabilities of both our navy and our air force must make a quantum leap.

We must now assume responsibility for our own defense — and all that implies belt-tightening and self-sacrifice.

In air defense, as generally in our economy, there was a time when we were Southeast Asia’s best. Our fighter planes were state-of-the-art; and, our young pilots were the best.

Our pilots still are the best; but our planes, weapons and technical equipment are definitely not.

We must bring them up — at least to par with the rest — all over again. Obviously, we have to do the best we can with the little we can spare.

General Abadia has been an articulate spokesman for the air force — and the urgency of rebuilding our air defense system. In that I have no disagreement with him.

For me as your president, modernization of the air force is not just an institutional concern. It is an urgent national concern. And I am determined to build this credible air defense system within my tenure as president.

We shall have to accelerate our entire self-reliance program for the armed forces. This program will have beneficial side-effects that are much more than military — in the transfer of technology, in job generation and even in the potential export of defense products.

For the moment, let me just say this: General Abadia, officers and men of the air force: i assure you that you will have the planes, the weapons, and the equipment to match your competence, your patriotism, and your courage.

Now let me greet you once again — on your anniversary day and the graduation of the Philippine Air Force Flying School Class of 1992 — and wish you more power in our country’s service.

Mabuhay ang Philippine Air Force!!

Mabuhay ang Philippine Air Force Flying School Class of 1992!!

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!!

Maraming salamat po!!