INTRODUCTION
In our free society, we use the word “hero” nowadays to denote all kinds of action and achievement that strengthen and enrich our common life. In this way we hail as heroes our toilers of the soil and workers in the factories, our overseas workers and our soldiers, our exemplary public servants and public-spirited citizens, our men of thought and artistic talent. And it is right that we embrace them as heroes.

Yet, after recognizing all this, there is another realm which we reserve — and must reserve — for our national heroes. And we do so because they are the makers of our history. They are the objects of our veneration and emulation because they exemplify the best in ourselves and in our country.

Historians and philosophers tell us that the defining quality of a national hero is that a person’s deeds and actions shape the course of history for the undeniable good and glory of a people or the world itself.

In our own history — amidst our many trials in four centuries of colonization and a century of struggle for independence — they are plain enough to see. At the key junctures of our history, our national heroes have appeared and charted for us new visions and paths to the future.

They have led us to appreciate our possibilities as a people, and they have shown extraordinary qualities of leadership for the realization of our dreams. In making events happen, they have left the imprint of their personalities upon history — an imprint that remains long after they disappeared from the scene.

By this measure do we know them.

Lapu-Lapu was indubitably the first Filipino hero because in defiance of Magellan and the first conquistadores, he showed the world the mettle of our forebears — and literally delayed by over half a century the Spanish conquest of the archipelago.

The last quarter of the 19th century flourished with national heroes because this was a historical turning point when the Filipino nation was forged on the anvil of colonial subjugation. From the martyred priests — fathers Gomez, Burgos and Zamora — we find an umbilical line leading to Rizal, Bonifacio, Aguinaldo and Mabini.

In our march to self-government — interrupted by several years of war and Japanese occupation — many heroes also appeared on the scene. Men like Quezon, Osmeña and Abad Santos enabled us to become a republic in the aftermath of war.
CRISIS AND HEROISM
If crisis, as the Chinese say, brings opportunity, so also does it bring forth heroism. In the trials of our people and our country, we have found again examples of extraordinary courage and greatness.

The heroic role that Ninoy Aquino played in our recent history is an outstanding contemporary example.

For it was he who, with single-minded resolution, produced the first cracks in the dike, and who then, with exemplary courage, came home. Like Rizal before him, within a few years after his martyrdom, the dam of martial rule literally broke and the nation was liberated once more.

The nature of the challenges changes with the times and the circumstances. But the occasion for heroic action and the need for heroes remain.

That is the case with our people and our country today.
THE CONTEMPORARY NEED FOR HEROES
As we celebrate National Heroes Day today, three years before the centennial of our independence, we also need Filipino heroism to cross a new threshold in the story of our nation — the threshold of modernization and sustained progress.

It is possible that in our country today, the heroes required are no longer of the mold of, or as rare as, Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio. As the historian-philosopher Sidney Hook has suggested:

“[In a democracy], a hero is any individual who does his work well and makes a unique contribution to the public good. Daily toil on any level has its own occasions of struggle, victory and quiet death. A democracy should contrive its affairs, not to give one or a few the chance to reach heroic stature, but rather to take as a regulative ideal the slogan, ‘every man a hero.

In a democracy, all are called and all may be chosen. We make history more and more together

I do not think that we trivialize the heroism of our national heroes when we say that the heroes of our time will be cut from ordinary cloth like you and me — when we proclaim our overseas workers — who toil in foreign lands to give their families a better life and thereby help the economy to grow — when we embrace the entrepreneurs and the factory workers as the heroes of our current economic resurgence — when we extol our teachers, our scientists, our jurists, our artists and our writers as the makers of progress.

For it is to this free community of Filipinos that the exertions of our heroes of the past were devoted and have inexorably led. If the inherent distinction between the hero and the average Filipino is breaking down in our time, that is because our national heroes enabled us to live and grow in freedom. That is because they enabled many more of us to be heroic ourselves.
HISTORY COMING FULL CIRCLE
This as I see it is the meaning of this yearly commemoration of National Heroes Day.

This is the essential thread that binds the present generation of our people to our heroes.

Today as we near the first Centennial of our Republic, our national history is coming full circle.

With every year in this decade, we mark the centennial of many events in our history. In 1992, we marked the birth of the Katipunan. Next year we will be marking the centenary of the Philippine Revolution and the martyrdom of Rizal. And so, it goes for every red-letter day in that critical last decade of the 19th century when our people found their voice as a nation.

Significantly, this decade of the 20th century is also a crucial time of building for our country.

Today, we stand at a crossroads where — with vision, resolve and dedication — we can finally take the path to lasting progress as a nation.

So let us choose the right path and face the challenges before us with heroism.

In celebrating National Heroes Day therefore, let us remember the great deeds and teachings of our heroes. Let their memory spark our purpose and resolve. Let their example inspire us to make history in our own time.

Mabuhay ang ating mga dakilang bayani!

Mabuhay Philippines 2000!!!

Salamat at mabuhay kayong lahat.