INTRODUCTION

Thank you very much for this offering of prayer from the community of the Cosmopolitan Church I have been the object of many banquets, much ceremony, since it became clear the electorate had awarded me the presidency.

But this quiet gathering of friends — in this holy place of prayer, communion and thanksgiving — is far far better than rich food, fine drink, and sophisticated company in the grandest banquet hall.

And I am in your debt forever — because food and drink and ceremony the president can repay, but not this simple offering of prayer you have raised to God for me.

I can only promise that I shall be true to your expectation — that, for every day I am president. I will strive to be God’s fellow worker following Paul’s admonition to the Corinthians, I shall seek my reward not in material wealth nor in popular acclaim, but in the survival of what I am able to build for this country we all love.

Share in every way your pride in our faith — in the Christian faith I was brought up by my dear parents and by the multi-faith religious community to which I have been exposed in my 46 years of public service.

But, on June 30, when I took my oath of office as President of the Philippines, I did so not as the first Protestant President of the Republic but as its Twelfth President — one of a line that stretches back 94 years — who happens to be a protestant.

I stood for the presidency as the candidate of a People Power Coalition, and not of any church. And I will discharge my duties on no consideration other than the national interest.

My concept of empowering the people involves harnessing their will, energy and vision to enable them to shape their own destinies. This idea of helping one another and working together expresses our obedience to the lord and will lead us to know better and understand more fully the grace of God.

I will be the president of all our people –of whatever creed. Language. Or ethicality.

For, above and beyond our religious faiths, we are all Filipinos — driven to move this nation forward by a sense of nationhood, a sense of our history, and our shared struggle to make democracy work for everyone, especially the least among us.
RELIGION’S ROLE IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Like you, I adhere to the secularist ideal — of church and state as mutually autonomous and co-existent, each supreme in its own domain, but closely working together for the common good.

But, like you, I do not deny the role of religious faith in public affairs.

I do not believe we can simply write principles on documents we call constitutions and laws, and expect them to produce the right behavior overnight.

A democratic state cannot survive unless the people are virtuous and God-fearing. Democracy has always asked more of those who would follow it than do other forms of government.

In a dictatorship you and I may have no option but to follow.

In a democracy, the people must choose to place the national interest above their own. They must abide voluntarily by accepted rules of conduct — without praetorian guards having to watch them all the time. They must –on their own — abide by a tradition of civility.

Citizens in a democracy must respond to their civic conscience. And this civic conscience religious leaders — and church — help to form in the political public. Religious faith imparts a moral dimension to citizenship.

In the old days, churches may have defined salvation in terms of one’s withdrawal from worldly affairs.

Today, the Christian churches teach that believers must take part in democratic political activity.

Today, Christians and Muslims are enjoined to keep the peace, vote honestly, pay their taxes, obey the laws — all as an integral part of living their religious faith.

Not only that: many Christian concepts have become part of political discourse. For instance, the Christian concept of “stewardship” of the earth and its resources now works to protect the environment.
THE DUTIES OF CITIZENSHIP
There is a public sphere to human life which everyone of us must acknowledge.

We as citizens have only one destiny to share.

In our time, this public sphere of our common life has many concerns.

There is the issue of creating more jobs, of giving our people better shelter, decent livelihoods, medical care and competent schools.

There is the issue of delivering basic services promptly and efficiently particularly to our most neglected sectors, provinces, towns and communities.

Above all, there is the issue of social justice — of redressing the grievances of the majority among us who are poor and powerless.

We must do all we can to ensure that the national community is open to the poorest of our people.

We must not harden our hearts nor shut our hands, as long as there is among us a poor man.
COMMITMENT TO TRADITIONAL VIRTUES
I realize economics is vitally important: but public policy must never reduce human life to the merely economic.

Man was born to be more than just a consumer.

Already our obsession with material progress has spiritually impoverished the national community.

In chasing after more money, a better job, a new business, many of us have let go of our spiritual values.

Some have shed the sense of responsibility for one another; the ideal of family togetherness; of individual sacrifice and loyalty as the source of the good life and the basis of the good society.

We ourselves must certainly seek alternative ways of developing that are not self-destructive.

For “what good will it be for a man — or a nation — if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul?”

As Matthew reminds us, the ruthless pursuit of self-interest is in fact self-defeating.

We as a people must never stop cultivating the generosity of spirit that has always been the hallmark of Filipino society.

To these traditional virtues I remain deeply committed — recognizing that at an earlier time they had made our country strong and progressive — family and friendship, integrity and honesty, hard work and industry, and a boundless faith in God’s grace.

These virtues I will carry with me to the palace of our people.

I will be a president for all Filipinos. This is my covenant with our people — and the covenant I make with you.
OUR COMMON ASPIRATIONS
My dream for the Philippines takes inspiration from the Prophet Isaiah’s poetic picture of a community that is full of thanksgiving to God where:

“Wolves and sheep will live together in peace, and leopards will lie down with young goats.

Calves and lion cubs will feed together, and a little child will take care of them. Cows and bears will eat together, and their calves and cubs will lie down in peace lions will eat straw as cattle do.

Even a baby will not be harmed if it plays near a poisonous snake. On Zion, God’s holy hill, there will be nothing harmful or evil.

The land will be as full of knowledge of the lord as the seas are full of water.”

Fellow-Christians, brothers and sisters, guide me with your prayers as I take up the burden of national leadership — that I may walk in a straight path, in the fear of the Lord, to righteousness.

Thank you, good day!!