INTRODUCTION
For all our nations, the day of freedom is a special date in national annals, sacred and unique. Yet its transcendent meaning also links all nations in a common bond of brotherhood.

So it is with Philippine Independence Day.

In the 99 years since June 12, 1898, we have seen freedom flow like a tide across Asia and all the continents. From the handful of republics at the turn of the century, we are today a world of 184 republics.

In this fast-moving world of ours, it may be tempting to give history a token salute of respect and nothing more.

Yet if we surrender to this temptation, we shall risk losing our historical inheritance as a free people.

History is not mute. It recounts the spirit of our forebears and our cherished values.

Above all, it underscores the spirit of national unity that — across differences of backgrounds and creeds — forged each of our peoples into one nation.

Our national spirit — Diwang Pilipino: Isaisip, Isapuso, Isagawa — is the umbilical cord that ties our own generation to the past and to the future.

It also manifests our commitment to peace and social progress.

Our national spirit travels with us.

It is part of our official diplomacy.

It is evident in the people-to-people interaction exercised by our overseas workers, who contribute so much, not only to the Philippines, but also to all those that provide them a home away from home.

The strengthening of our overseas friendships, through greater exchange, cooperation and commerce, has always been a major priority of government.
FRIENDSHIP WITH OTHER COUNTRIES
In pursuit of this policy, I have since one year ago visited Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Bahrain, Qatar, the United States, Mexico, Panama and Hong Kong. Next week, I will visit the United Kingdom, Oman and Greece.

I wish to express my sincere appreciation to my most distinguished hosts during those visits, as well as to the heads of state or government of Nauru, Germany, the Netherlands, Peru, China, Bahrain, Thailand, South Africa and Singapore, and to the crown princes of Belgium and Luxembourg, who all honored us with their visits over the past twelve months.

The intensification of our overseas contacts and exchanges enhances our friendships abroad, and opens vast new opportunities for our development.

As each of us must work to develop our own national communities, so, too, must we continue to build a world where our nations can coexist in harmony, peace and plenty.

To our generation has fallen a great opportunity to forge a new post-cold war order.

If we are to avoid the mistakes of the past, we must infuse that order with a new spirit. We must embrace greater openness, broader dialogue, and more genuine partnership among nations.

We need a bold and humane community vision — at both regional and global levels — that can see that security and prosperity must be shared by all if they are to endure.

Our spirit of cooperation must hold us together, despite our diversity, our competition, and our politics of domination and dependency between the strong and the weak.
ASEAN, APEC AND ASEM
This is the spirit that activates ASEAN and APEC as components of a new regional structure of cooperation. It is what promotes the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) as an instrument of Asia-Pacific peace.

In the same vein, we have the Asia-Europe meeting (ASEM) as a bridge between our region and Europe, and we have the United Nations and other international organizations as mechanisms to pursue global development and welfare.

Last year, as the chairman of APEC, the Philippines had the privilege of leading the Asia-Pacific region toward a new era of sustainable growth and prosperity. At the APEC leaders meeting in Subic, the leaders of all APEC members strengthened our region’s resolve to use free market forces and enlightened cooperation to attain this goal.

Starting this coming July until next year, the Philippines will be chairman of the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, the ASEAN Standing Committee and the ASEAN Regional Forum.

The Philippines will then have the responsibility to coordinate the activities of the newly expanded ASEAN of ten members. We will do so in the pursuit of ASEAN’s policies of promoting regional cooperation in concert with all our friends and dialogue partners with interests in the Asia-Pacific region.
CLOSING
I speak of these links of the Philippines across the seas on this our Independence Day, for truly this is what national independence means.

Being free and independent, we can nurture enduring friendships with all peoples and all nations.

Being free and independent, we can win a respected place in the community of nations.

And being free and independent, we can contribute effectively to the building of a happy and peaceful world.

Your excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, on this happy day, as we celebrate the ninety-ninth anniversary of Philippine independence, may I invite you now to join me in a toast to the peace and progress of all our nations, to deepening cooperation among all our regions, and to the universal values of peace, freedom and friendship.

Mabuhay! — long life!