INTRODUCTION
It is said that a single picture can speak a thousand words. We only have to recall some photographs from the album of our memories and see in our mind’s eye, for example, the flag being raised at Iwo Jima, the last helicopter leaving Saigon, or the triumphant faces of the first climbers on Mount Everest.

The pictures tell it all. The work, the pathos, the glory. And yet these are only still photographs. If a single picture can communicate to many, how much more can a series of moving pictures say?
THE POWER TO COMMUNICATE
And it is this power — this potency of film to communicate, to inspire and to educate — that we should use in order to make for ourselves a better world.

The recognition of this power of film to enhance the quality of our hearts and our minds impelled me to reactivate, early in the Ramos administration, the Film Development Foundation of the Philippines, Inc. (FDPI).

Let us lobby together with congress for the passage of the bill which will put the film development foundation on surer footing, including the incentives mandated by law, for quality films. With the enactment of such measures, the people of the film industry in this country can rest assured that a stronger partnership is put in place between government and film-makers in our common desire to help the industry.

But the government can only do so much. The real burden of creating good films, of course, rests on all of you in the film industry. The artists, technicians, craftsmen, writers, directors, producers and musicians now have the task of pooling and managing their resources efficiently for the production of films that will underline redeeming values and principles inherent in the Filipino.
It is you of the industry who will make the statements about the human condition, about the conflicts in the human heart. It is you who will make the films that will record our character, our aspirations and our national identity.

It is you who will make up the stories and act out on celluloid the motion pictures that will move people, that will make them weep and laugh, that will make them know who they are and what they are, and make them realize those qualities that make us unique as a people, and yet a cooperative and capable part of the human race.

So, on this day I celebrate with you not only an important anniversary but also a turning point in the making of Filipino films. Let us resolve here and now to do a simple but important thing: let us make better films. The industry needs them, our people needs them, the country needs them, and the world needs them.
AN INSPIRING EXAMPLE
The Hungarian film director and film theorist Bela Belasz tells this story about the power of film. He says that when the Russians were making a film about the building of the railroad between Turkestan and Siberia, a film called Turksib, the filmmaker showed how important the railway was to the lives of the two regions.

He showed the obstacles in the way of the building of the railroad. He showed how the workers in the north kept on working in spite of the freezing cold and how the workers in the south worked equally under the heat and aridness of the desert.

But in the end, even if it was only a small train that started to run on a single track, children were running beside the train, men on horses were galloping, people were laughing and cheering and waving because it ushered in a new era in the lives of the people of Turkestan and Siberia.

When workers on another project saw the film, they were so inspired by it that they vowed they would finish their project earlier than the deadline. And they did finish it six months ahead of time.

This little story shows how powerful film can be and how it can move men to do great things. What we say here today may not matter. But what you do after today is of the greatest importance.

We are told that when Cicero spoke, men said, “how well he spoke.” But when Demosthenes spoke, men said “let us march.” I do not want you to say after this, “ok yung speech ng presidente.” Speeches, after all, are only words. I want you to say to one another, “ok, gumawa na tayo ng mahusay na pelikula. Kaya ito ng Pinoy! Kayang kaya!!”
CLOSING
Now, as my grandmother once told me, “When you want to be heard, speak up. When you want to be seen, stand up. But when you want to be appreciated, shut up.” So, hindi na po ako magtatagal. All I can say is, “nawa’y bigyan natin ng kulay at kahulugan ang pelikulang Pilipino. Mabuhay kayong lahat! Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!!