Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
At the signing of the National Development Plan for Culture and the Arts
[Delivered at the Heroes’ Hall, Malacañang, April 7, 1993]
One culture, one people
AS WE COME together today to witness the signing of our National Development Plan for Culture and the Arts, I cannot help feeling a surge of pride and optimism for the good that this noble undertaking can bring to our nation.
With this plan, we acknowledge the existence of one true and distinctive Filipino culture—a culture born from the ideas, talents and dreams of generations of Filipinos, enriched and made sacred through the collective values and experiences that make us uniquely Filipino.
They are in our blood, these collective visions and experiences. They are evident in how we view life, in how we face adversities in our quest for development, in how we treat our fellow men, in how we place our faith in the hands of an all-knowing, all-powerful Almighty.
Our common heritage is what binds us together. Our common culture is the ultimate expression of the Filipino soul.
Culture as the backbone of development
The authors of our Constitution underscored the need for recognizing a distinct Filipino culture in which the foundations of our development may find their roots.
Development, to be truly meaningful, must come from the wellspring of a people’s culture. This Administration recognizes this basic tenet. That is why we supplement Republic Act 7356 creating the National Commission on Culture and the Arts with this Presidential Order that I have signed today.
With the renewed hope of a unified nation, I hereby call on all our people and the national leadership to support the Philippine Development Plan for Culture and the Arts, formulated in consonance with the Medium-term Development Plan for 1993-98, which in turn leads to the achievement of our shared vision for “Philippines 2000.”
Our national heritage, strengthened and sustained in this plan, will be our legacy to the generations after us. Theirs will be a future of confidence and growth, because today we articulate and operationalize the principles of oneness of nationhood. We see our future more clearly because we are setting national goals in the context of our culture—as an achieving and unified people.
Government as the vanguard of culture
To achieve our common goals, Government must take on the tasks that would realize and sustain the catalytic role of culture in our lives. While the race toward economic prosperity and advancement continues to be pursued to this day, we recognize that indeed culture plays a decisive role in economic development.
But let us not misconstrue our definition of culture. While the arts are essentially a part of culture, they do not wholly compose what we know of as culture. Culture is a system of vital ideas that directs virtually every aspect of our social life and energizes our relationships with our world and our environment. It is the matrix from which our values, attitudes, motivations and skills as a people emerge.
The task, then, of Government is to keep the momentum of this endeavor going. We must institutionalize the foundations that support the cultural and artistic mold of our nation, so that as one people we may pursue our vision of growth and stability.
Government’s role is essentially that of a preserver and promoter of culture, a patron of the arts. We take on this role that we may protect the spirit from which we draw our strength and faith to make this nation more progressive.
The renaissance of Filipino culture
The Plan envisions the renaissance of Filipino culture. Ours will be an awakening to the vitality, richness and dynamism that characterize our heritage. We must awaken pride in being Filipinos, instill a sense of identity into our people and unify them to build one nation.
The Plan has three phases: institution building from 1991 to 1992; infrastructure development from 1993 to 1995; and program expansion from 1996 to 2000.
Most of the priorities in the institution phase are now in place, including the creation of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts as the central policy-making and coordinating body for cultural and artistic development, the National Endowment Fund for cultural and artistic programs and activities, and the Commission on the Filipino Language as mandated by the Constitution.
We will support the concerned cultural agencies to carry out the infrastructure development phase, especially seeing to it that the National Museum is eventually housed in a building it can truly call its own.
And as early as now, we look forward to the implementation of the program expansion phase, which focuses on the culmination of the decade of culture and nationalism, the highlight of which is the centennial of the Philippine Republic’s existence, in 1998.
The adoption of the Plan by the President signals the sustained implementation by cultural and other Government agencies, and the vigorous and unwavering support of the private sector. The growing consciousness for unity, solidarity and teamwork among our people—between the Government and the private sector, between the haves and the have-nots, between the urban and the rural, and between the artists and the laymen—augurs well for our cultural development.
Our heritage is our strength. It is our link with our past. It mirrors our national soul and our aspirations. It embodies everything essentially Filipino.
Let us renew in our hearts the patriotism and nationalism that are embodied in our legends, images, folklore, as well as contemporary achievements that are genuinely Filipino.
Only by this way can progress be within our grasp, one nation, one culture. One culture, one nation. This, in essence, is the heart of the Plan. Let us all support its implementation.