INTRODUCTION
Isang malugod na pagbati ang aking ipinaabot sa sambayanang Pilipino sa ating paggunita sa Araw ng mga Bayaning Pilipino (National Heroes’ Day) sa araw na ito.

Kasabay nito ang ating makabuluhang pagdiriwang ng taong 1997 bilang taon ng Diwang Pilipino — isang angkop na paghahanda para sa bisperas ng paggunita sa Sentenyal ng ating Kalayaan at pagiging isang bansa sa taong 1998.

In many ways, of course, our heroes have been with us all these years, in spirit and in deed. We know their names. We speak about them in our schools. We dedicate statues, buildings and avenues in their honor.

This is as it should be. By honoring the extraordinary, we remind ourselves that heroism requires a certain stature of men and women — an ability and a self-sacrificial willingness to rise above common humanity in response to the urgent needs of their time.
OUR HEROES, BEFORE AND NOW
Wars and revolutions or situations crucial to human survival inevitably produce outstanding mortals of great talent, character, and achievement. Dr. Jose Rizal, Graciano Lopez Jaena and Marcelo H. Del pilar were products of abusive colonial rule. The battlefields of Zapote, Binakayan and Kawit, among many others throughout the archipelago, proved to be the hallowed ground from which our freedom would spring, watered by the blood of our heroes.

At a young age, leaders such as Andres Bonifacio, Emilio Aguinaldo, Gregorio del Pilar, Artemio Ricarte and many more Filipinos of their kind dashed across the pages of our history and achieved great deeds.

In the more recent past, the names such as those of Jesus Villamor, Jose Abad santos, Wenceslao Vinzons, Josefa Llanes Escoda, Ninoy Aquino, Ramon Magsaysay (whose 90th birthday we observe today) have become enshrined in the collective consciousness and the grateful hearts of our people.

They are indeed a rare breed of mortals from whose lives and ideals we draw inspiration.

But for every Rizal, for every Bonifacio, for every Aquino, thousands of men and women have led simple and quiet lives of painstaking and productive labor; who have given of their blood perhaps not in large streams but in the steady pulse of honest and efficient service; who make of every task a personal responsibility to create and leave behind a better world.

These are the battles and the heroes of our time, and they, too, we acknowledge and honor on National Heroes’ Day.

The young student who looks into the future, and who is not afraid of its complexity; the worker who relishes the challenge of excellence and competition; the entrepreneur who dares, who believes in his own country’s better future; the public leader who places the strategic national interest above all other considerations.

In this category of heroes, also, are our overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and thousands of professionals who have returned from abroad because they now see good prospects for themselves and their families back home here in the Philippines.

I must not also fail to mention the legion of peace and development advocates — Christians, Muslims and indigenous people — soldiers, policemen and local government officials who are making our peace process work in our southern regions.

Worthy of our praise, especially, are our World War II veterans who continue their lonely decades-old battle before the US Congress for justice and equity, even in the twilight of their years.
A UNIQUE BURDEN AND PRIVILEGE
Upon all of them, history has imposed a unique burden: to transform seemingly ordinary lives and opportunities, in a climate of peace, into the kind of breathtaking achievement — once possible only in war — that marks a turning point for the welfare and the future of a people and a nation.

One year ago, the peace agreement between our government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) was initialed in Jakarta and this led to the final signing of that historic agreement at Malacañang on September 2, 1996.

Today, we reaffirm our willingness to assume that burden, which is an honored privilege.

This is the Filipino spirit we celebrate. On the one hand, it is the spirit of heroism and self-sacrifice: the readiness to offer up one’s life in martyrdom, for the salvation and the liberation of the race. On the other hand, it is also the spirit of enterprise: the vision to innovate, and the energy to create new opportunities for growth and change, and for freedom.

It is also to appropriate recall on this National Heroes’ Day our February 1986 People Power Revolution which threw out a dictatorship. Many of us who participated in and supported that heroic movement are here today. Tomorrow, in Romania, will open the Third International Conference of New and Restored Democracies (INCRD) which now counts more than sixty (60) countries. When the Philippines convened the first such international gathering in 1988, there were only thirteen (13) member-countries. Such indeed, are the fruits of heroism — the expansion of freedom and democracy around the world!!

The Filipino spirit of sacrifice, enterprise and heroism has been manifested in the economic, social, electoral and defense reforms we have initiated over the five years of the Ramos administration. I am certain that this spirit will live on, well into the next century, sustained by another generation of young, progressive and accomplished Filipinos — all of them our modern heroes.

Bawat isa sa atin — bilang mga bayani ng bagong panahon — ay hinihingan ng kaniyang ambag sa ikaniningning at ikabubuti ng ating kinabukasan. Pairalin natin ang wasto at magandang pag-uugali. Gamitin natin at isulong ang husay, talino at mga kagalingang ipinamana sa atin ng ating mga ninuno. Isabuhay natin at pagyamanin ang Diwang Pilipino — ang diwa ng pagkakaisa sa kaunlaran, ang pagkakaisa sa pagtamo ng magandang kinabukasan.

Mabuhay ang mga Bayaning Pilipino!

Mabuhay ang Diwang Pilipino!

Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat!