Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
At a dinner hosted by Prime Minister and Mrs. Felipe González on the occasion of his official visit to Spain
[Delivered at the Palacio de la Moncloa, Madrid, Spain, September 12, 1994]
A new and stronger
bridge
IT HAS BEEN three decades since a Philippine President last visited your country. I am deeply honored to have been the one to renew our countries’ historic friendship.
For Filipinos, visiting Spain is like returning to our ancestral home. For here we find familiar sights and remembered sounds from our own past. Here we can trace many threads of our national memory, and many strands of our national culture, to their source.
The extraordinary, unfailing and exquisite courtesies Their Majesties extended to us since the day of our arrival sustain the certitude of our sentiment—our feeling that, here in Spain, we have found ourselves at home.
A sense of affinity
We consider these gestures of Their Majesties to spring from the goodwill that the people of Spain feel for the Philippines and the Filipinos: from the Spanish people’s sense of affinity with us.
We are certain these manifestations of goodwill and affinity arise also out of the obvious generosity of Their Majesties’ personal natures and from the warmth and greatness of their own hearts. These in turn reflect the true character of the people of Spain.
In the same way, Mr. Prime Minister, this gracious dinner and the kind words you have just spoken manifest the magnanimity of your own character and that of Mrs. González.
They express the esteem of the Government and people of Spain for the Government and people of the Philippines.
Toward a new relationship
More than that, they are a statement of your Government’s and your people’s desire—a desire our Government and people share—for a new relationship between our two countries.
For these, we thank Your Excellency and the Government that you lead.
On behalf of our people, we thank the Government and people of Spain for manifesting their solidarity with the Philippines by way of their unfailing support for the Philippines’ interests and concerns.
This has included the endorsement which Spain so promptly expressed for the re-establishment and consolidation of our democracy—an endorsement which Spain, among all countries, was the first to extend.
Spain’s invaluable support was reiterated on the occasion of Your Excellency’s memorable visit to the Philippines in 1988.
I wish to assure you, Mr. Prime Minister, of our gratitude, and of the inestimable value that our Government and people place on the history we share, and the way Spain has enriched our culture.
Philippine welcome for the Infanta
This sentiment sustained the welcome we extended to Her Royal Highness, the Infanta Doña Elena, when she visited us in May this year.
It underlies our appreciation for the establishment in Manila of the Instituto Cervantes, which Her Royal Highness inaugurated on that occasion.
It supports our determination to encourage the learning of the Spanish language in our country and elsewhere in Asia. It affirms our resolve to enrich our people’s familiarity with our common history.
That history will acquire new meaning for the Filipino people as we prepare to celebrate, in 1998, the centennial of the Philippines’ Independence from Spain.
While 1898 may have marked an inevitable separation, we see 1998 as an opportunity to reaffirm our shared historical and cultural past with Spain and Latin America. The experience and the wisdom of a century should bring us back together, in a new and stronger friendship based on our common commitment to democracy and to the well-being of our peoples.
Traversing the chasm
We realize, however, Mr. Prime Minister, as I am sure you do, that national sentiment remains ephemeral unless it finds expression in something substantial and meaningful for the people of today, and unless it is sustained and nourished by concrete manifestations now and in the future.
Long though our common history may be, and close though our cultural affinity may be—our relationship must be energized and activated over the entire range of human endeavor so that it acquires a larger meaning, expands, and endures.
The Philippines and Spain are separated by oceans and continents. Nevertheless, the intrepid navigator, Ferdinand Magellan, sailing under the Spanish flag, traversed that geographic chasm, changing for all time the history of both the Philippines and Spain and much of the rest of the world.
He accomplished this transcendent feat in an age when it required enormous courage, a powerful will and extraordinary vision to do so.
Magellan demonstrated that with these qualities, it was possible to bridge the great distance between your peninsula and our islands even in his time.
Today it should not be as difficult to do so, particularly in the light of the miracle of modern transportation and communication. It is thus all the more disappointing, despite the history and sentiments we share, that the trade and other economic transactions between our two countries have been at such a low level.
Building a new bridge of commerce
We have therefore made this visit to Spain to build a new bridge between the Philippines and Spain, a sturdy bridge of commerce, finance and technology. And we build this bridge on the strong foundations of our history, our cultural affinity and the values that we share.
For us, this visit is as much an enterprise for the future as a journey to the past. It is an occasion and an opportunity for substantive encounters between those who will pursue what we have begun today. These will be our business leaders and captains of industry, who will be working on that bridge from both ends.
On my delegation are a substantial number of the Philippines’ leading businessmen and industrialists, some of whom are with us this evening.
I consider it an accomplishment for me to have held serious discussions with major Spanish business and corporate leaders during this brief visit, encounters that we regard as hardly less important than those that we have had with leaders and administrators of the Spanish Government
Thanks largely to Your Excellency’s leadership, the Spanish economy has steadily gained in strength.
We have also undertaken basic reforms in the Philippines, which restored political stability and regenerated our economy. Our policies for growth and liberalization have succeeded in setting us on the path of steady and rapid growth.
These promising developments in both our countries offer our business sector and yours opportunities for a level of economic interaction between the Philippines and Spain higher than anything achieved before.
Spain is a part of the European Union that is expanding in membership and deepening in integration. The Philippines belongs to ASEAN. This regional association is also about to broaden in membership, has taken on new tasks for itself, and has embarked on the creation of an ASEAN Free Trade Area.
The success of our regional associations multiplies the opportunities for economic exchange between our countries, provided they remain open to each other and to the world.
Certainly, ASEAN does not envision the building of barriers between it and the rest of the world. The Philippines, for one, is committed to the steady liberalization of its economy, both internally and in its relations with the world. This commitment includes the ratification of the final act of the Uruguay Round.
Spain’s gateway to East Asia
The Philippines sees itself—and would be happy to serve—as Spain’s gateway to Asia.
Mr. Prime Minister, the ties of history and culture between the Philippines and Spain acquire meaning in today’s world only if they find concrete expression in practical economic and other human interaction.
At the same time, this interaction is nurtured by the history and culture that we have in common and, more than history and culture, by our common adherence and devotion to the ideals and convictions that our peoples share.
We find this in our commitment to human rights and the dignity of the individual person, democracy, and the political and economic empowerment of the people.
This sense of community between us was immensely strengthened by our parallel experiences emerging—in our recent histories—from authoritarianism to democracy.
In that transition, our peoples had similar aspirations, our fledgling democracies were threatened by similar attempts to kill them in their infancy. And we overcame the threats with similar combinations of political resolve, social and economic reforms, and the collective will of the people.
Many elements, all mutually reinforcing, thus bind us and our peoples together—our culture, our histories, both recent and long ago, the values that we hold in common, and the new opportunities that our two countries and our two regions now offer to us.
It is now for us and the present generation of our peoples to build on these foundations a new relationship that will, in concrete terms, benefit us all.
This visit of the President of the Philippines to the Kingdom of Spain is an act that should give impetus to that new relationship.