Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
At a dinner hosted by Foreign Minister Alain Juppe of France
On President Ramos’s visit to France

[Delivered in Paláis des Affaires Etrangeres, Paris, September 13, 1994]

A partnership in freedom

MR. MINISTER, in an important sense, we come not as strangers to your country. It is said France is ”the homeland of the rights of man.” If so, every Filipino is also a citizen in this homeland. For as liberty is an immutable part of being French, so is it of being Filipino.

This kinship lies not only in the struggles of the past, which are dutifully recalled on ceremonial occasions like this. It continues in the struggles of our own time.

Franco-Philippine relations

We do not forget, Mr. Minister, that in February 1986— during that critical time when the Filipino people fought tyranny and restored democracy in our land, France was the first country to recognize our new Government under President Corazon Aquino.

That was a magnificent gesture in itself, but in addition, your Government generously provided economic aid consisting of a one-billion-franc four-year financial package, an aid-to-development swap and a debt-for-equity swap.

Also, the French Government took the lead in enabling us to avail ourselves of the most concessional terms for loans with the Paris Club of nations.

We do not forget also, Mr. Minister, that France was one of the major sponsors of the European Union’s resolution of November 26, 1993, which supported the peace process initiated by my Government to end the many conflicts that have long divided our country.

And we do not forget the series of protocols under the Philippines-France cultural, scientific and technical cooperation agreement, which are now being implemented by our two countries. The exchanges between our scientists, academics, artists and Government officials have immeasurably deepened understanding between us. And it is because of these that the San Diego Exposition and Fetes Philippines are at present being held here in France.

Our vision: “Philippines 2000”

The encouragement and assistance of friends like France have helped us in turning things around in the Philippines during these past three years.

Under a program of reform we call “Philippines 2000,” we have put our house in order and set free the energy of enterprise and creativity in our country.

In the economy, we have launched major reforms to democratize and level the field for competition. Through deregulation, liberalization and privatization, we are transforming the oligarchic character of the Philippine economy into a democratic one.

Our people have rallied to the call for effort. Investors, domestic and foreign, have poured fresh investments in the economy. Productivity in both industry and agriculture is up. Inflation has been tamed. Our reserves are at a historic high.

To nurture and steer this dramatic change effectively is the reason for my journey to Europe at this time.

I have come here not only to thank you but also to invite you to take part—as a friend and a partner—in the economic modernization of the Philippines.

For we know that Europe, no less than America, seeks to take part in the great adventure of modernization now taking place in Asia.

It seems to us only fitting that Europe—and France especially—should mold strong ties with the country that resembles them most in their history and ideals. For truly the Philippines is unique in Asia today for venturing to develop-not at the expense of its democracy, but through democracy. And we are succeeding, much as Europe did in an earlier time.

I say that not to boast but to reply to the conventional wisdom that only authoritarian government can make progress possible in the Third World.

Democracy also needs its examples of success among developing countries.

Writing the future

In my talks with President Francois Mitterrand, with Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, and with you, Minister Juppe, I have stressed the opportunity and the timeliness of expanding economic, political and cultural ties between us. This is the time to take our relations to a new stage—from friendship to partnership.

France has historically related with the world through the power of its ideals. It relates as a beacon of human freedom.

From the ideas of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, our own revolutionary forebears like Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio dared to dream of the Filipino nation. And thus did we become the first republic in Asia in 1898.

“No nation, no democracy,” says the Oxford historian Theodore Zeldin, “can write its own history without acknowledging some debt, or some direct influence to France.”

The agreements forged during this visit on investment, finance, defense, cultural and scientific cooperation, signify the resolve of France and the Philippines to build a partnership for the future.

They ensure that our peoples and our countries will stand together at the advent of the new world of peace and progress.