Apo Mayor Nalupta; Governor Fariñas; Apo Congressman Simeon Valdez and Mrs. Valdez and the Valdez family; Mr. Dominador Ricarte, Mrs. Ricarte and the entire Ricarte family; Mrs. Amelita “Ming” Ramos, your first lady and mine; the veterans of the Philippines particularly those here in Ilocos Norte and Batac; the students, the teachers; the leaders and businessmen; the other leaders of the various sectors in Batac and Ilocos Norte; Vice Governor Nalupta; Father Nicolas; Mrs. Fortuna Marcos Barba; mga mahal na kababayan dito sa Batac; …(Ilocano)

I am happy to be here once again in our hometown of Batac. And from those who are not from here, you can see that very early in the morning the sun is already very hot. That is why those of us who come from here including my lolo, the late Hilario Valdez are very dark. If Congressman Valdez and I are a little fairer than most of the Batacqueños, it is because we have lived too long in other places. But as the saying goes, the darker the carabao, the stronger it is. And the darker the tobacco, the better it is.

I am even thankful to the Mariano Marcos State University Choir for singing my mother’s favorite song, (Ilocano). How I wish they had invited me to sing with them because I know those words very well. Next time around, puwede ba?

But you can see that I feel at home here. Because i spent many years during the summers of my boyhood in Batac. There were about 15 cousins belonging to the eight brothers and sisters, the offspring of the late Hilario Valdez and Cristina Marcos Valdez, who would come here and spend their summer not to enjoy but to work and to learn. And one of the things I learned here in Batac was …(Ilocano).. De tabaco. I know the good qualities of Ilocano tobacco. But because smoking is bad for you, I do not smoke it, I just consume it in order to promote one of the best export products of Ilocandia which is tobacco.

And i authorize all of the officials here in Ilocos Norte and Batac, Ilocos Sur and abra because i see some of them, and la union, to go ahead and consume tobacco but do not smoke it, because smoking is bad for you. But you can see this is good for many things. This is good for gatil. This is good for mosquitos; it kills flies and it’s a good medicine in the absence of the modern pharmaceutical products. But smoking is bad for you.

And so this morning, my dear friends, I am especially happy to be here. Because today we put into proper perspective the rightful place of general Artemio Ricarte in our military and political history. A native son of Batac whom we should all be proud of, whom all Filipinos should be proud of.

General Artemio Ricarte, the hero of the revolution against Spain and the Philippine American war has not been given the due recognition and honor that he truly deserves. And it is precisely for this reason that we stand in admiration and deep respect this morning, before his monument, and call to mind this daring exploit against the Spanish and American colonizers.

He was truly nationalistic and patriotic. Ricarte was unflinching in his continuous refusal to pay homage to the American occupation forces.

Four years ago, when I was the Secretary of National Defense, my support was solicited by former Congressman Simeon M. Valdez and mayor Jesus Nalupta for the building of an appropriate shrine to General Ricarte here in Batac.

And so, I gathered the leadership of the Department of National Defense headed by Secretary Renato de Villa. The Armed Forces of the Philippines, represented here by Lieutenant General Arturo Enrile, the Commanding General of the Philippine Army. The Philippine Tourism Authority, represented here by its general manager, Mr. Ed Joaquin, the National Historical Institute, represented here by their researchers and scholars. The Philippine Veterans Affairs Office, represented by its administrator, general retired Jun Pesaña. The government of the province of Ilocos Norte and, of course, the government of the municipality of Batac.

I also would like to give credit where credit is due in regard to the building of this park area in the putting up of the shrine itself. It was done by the AFP Corps of Engineers led by General Dominador Catibog and executed by one of his battalion commanders, a native son of Ilocos Norte, Colonel Daquinag.

There are many who took part in the putting up of this project which is the way we should put up projects through collaborated efforts and with the support and the consent of the people in the community. So, to these agencies we give our special thanks. This monument to general Ricarte, this national shrine is but the first phase of a broader program of the enhancement of the renowned town of Batac, our hometown, which has become a historical, commercial and tourism center not only for the Second District of Ilocos Norte, not only for all of Ilocos Norte but, indeed, for all of northern Luzon.

The local leaders of Batac have thus provided us an indelible reminder of our responsibility to history and to those that made history because of their exploits during the revolutionary period. And few men deserve this re-evaluation as much as General Ricarte. This, I understand, is what the present- day people of Batac want.

Let me also narrate to you what has been done in other places to put General Ricarte in its right and proper place in Philippine history.

During the time of the late President Marcos, the remains of General Ricarte were recovered from Kalinga-Apayao by elements of the Philippine Army and enshrined in the Libingan ng mga Bayani. The Philippine Army and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, likewise, took the lead in having the main building in camp Aguinaldo, which is now the General Headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, a newly renovated multi-million edifice as the Ricarte Building.

As most of us know, General Ricarte earned the degree of bachelor of arts from San Juan de Letran and attended the University of Sto. Tomas for higher study in order to prepare himself for the teaching profession.

Batac is known for its teachers from way back. And that includes many who are our grandfathers, our grandmothers, our mothers and fathers who are in this crowd today.

As a young man, Ricarte joined the Katipunan where he earned the nom de guerre “Vivora” or Viper, perhaps to give credit to his superior intelligence and leadership.

On August 31st 1896, he led the successful assault of the Spanish garrison in San Francisco de Malabon which is now General Trias municipality in Cavite. His dramatic victory impressed the leadership of the revolutionary forces. And as a young man in his late 20s, he was made a general. Some of us have to wait a long time to become general. You ask General de Villa and General Enrile. But we pay tribute to this young man who led and won battles against the Spaniards in Laguna, Batangas and Cavite.

Ricarte was with General Emilio Aguinaldo in Kawit, Cavite, when Aguinaldo proclaimed Philippine independence on June 12, 1898. General Ricarte ever the ardent nationalist, also proved to be a bitter thorn on the side of the Americans in the ensuing Philippine American war. As operations chief of the 2nd zone in manila, he was captured while leading the assaults to bridge the American line and was vanished to Guam, along with Apolinario Mabini. He was returned to the Philippines by the Americans in 1903, but he was vanished again to Hong Kong immediately thereafter because he refused to take the pledge of allegiance to the United States of America. Months later, he so repeatedly returned to the Philippines only to be captured once again, eventually he was convicted for conspiracy and subversion to serve a prison term of six years. And he served that prison term. But when he was released on June 10, 1910 after serving that full sentence, he was released and once more he was asked to swear allegiance to the United States. But once more this principled and courageous man of Batac refused and thus, he was deported back to Hong Kong. It is not because he did not like to stay in our country and enjoy retirement in Batac that he refused to stay here. It was because of the patriotic principle of refusing to subject himself to a foreign country that made Ricarte the way he was.

How many of us are going to refuse only to be exiled; and to refuse again only to be exiled once more. Most of us like to be exiled to a foreign country, to be tourist so that we can shop and to enjoy ourselves. ..(Ilocano)..apo ni General Ricarte. And he’s a man who should be a model for all Filipinos in these difficult days for the Philippines.

It is also known that Ricarte was a writer and a publisher. And while in exile in Hong Kong, he published a newspaper called “El Grito” or “The Cry”, a publication highly critical of America and the American administration in the Philippines. So not being able to reconcile himself with the American administration, he sailed away from Hong Kong to Japan where he stayed for 30 years, himself exiled, only to die soon after his return to the Philippines in Nagpuraon which is a small village in Kalinga on July 31st 1945 soon after our liberation from the Japanese.

Historical accounts written by Americans used to describe Aguinaldo and his veterans including Ricarte as plain bandits when they fought the American forces. And because of this distortion even the nationalism of many Filipinos had come to be defined essentially as anti-Americanism and this distracted us for a long time from a positive or holistic understanding and practice of nationalism as exemplified by Ricarte.

There are volumes of historical documents and accounts written mostly by foreigners from their imported or biased perspective. They have been taken as gospel truth by readers, by students of history and even by professional historians. This has led to the misreading of our history by our people specially the young ones. Many such accounts do not do justice neither give proper recognition to many great Filipinos.

So it is time that the myth, the distortion and the inaccuracy in the treatment of historic events and personalities are placed in a perspective of objectivity that will enable us to better appreciate our heritage.

In our struggle for nationhood, we have suffered much. Filipinos have yielded countless lives, endured untold abuse, and fought superior forces both off and on the field of battle. And from this agony has risen the glory of the heroism of General Artemio Ricarte. But we cannot mistake suffering for virtue, particularly the suffering we inflict upon ourselves by assuming or even sometimes stalling our pessimistic and defeatist attitudes. If there is anything that we must learn from history, it is that we have prevailed against overwhelming odds and this wisdom we must apply to our struggle today to achieve economic liberation and ensure sustained progress.

We Filipinos certainly are not bereft of reasons to be proud. We were after all the first people in the whole of colonial Asia who waged a nationalist revolution against western imperialism. Our forefathers and we count upon many of them who were born here in Ilocandia, Aglipay among them, Father Jose Burgos also, for they not only founded the first Asian republic but they also endowed it with a democratic constitution equal to those considered to be the most liberal in the world at the time. And so, we can certainly take pride in the heroism of young Filipinos barely passed their teens or 20s who then led the nationalist force. Heroes and priests like Gomez, Burgos and Zamora who died on the garrote; students exiled like Rizal; Del Pilar, the two of them; Luna who endured privation in a cold country away from home, and ordinary patriot guerrillas who trooped to the battle field against both the Spaniards and Americans.

The likes of Gregorio del Pilar, Emilio Jacinto, and Antonio Luna are now joined in the annals of our war-torn independence by Artemio Garcia Ricarte.

Today, as we commemorate the heroism of General Ricarte, we must as well look to the heroes among us and the heroes within ourselves. For indeed, the challenges of our time have assumed many forms. We are fortunate in the fact that we struggle today in an atmosphere of peace, profiting from the sacrifices of our forefather’s guts. We can do no less than be worthy of that sacrifice by giving of ourselves in whatever way we can for the cause of nation-building.

And so therefore in closing, I would like to express my deep appreciation to the chairman and the members of the committee on the establishment of the General Artemio Ricarte National Shrine. Theirs is the invaluable contribution towards the recognition of the significant role played by General Ricarte in the struggle for Philippine independence.

We can learn much today from his example of courage and perseverance — always trying, never giving up. And so, we challenge now the people of Batac and Ilocos Norte. Let us not continuously petition government for what government can give or do for you. But instead consider yourselves as the active partners of government so that government and the private sector together can move much faster and can redouble the results of any undertaking for community, regional and national development.

And so, i say to you, if this project is successful, it is because there is the partnership of national and local government together with the citizenry. That is the way the other projects must move. And that is the way my administration will accomplish the so many tasks that we have to do in our time. Show me that partnership and i will show you my commitment on the part of national government. But if that partnership is not evident, we will go to other places to seek that partnership. Abra is waiting. Ilocos sur is waiting. The cordilleras are waiting. Batanes is waiting. But since we are all from here, you have priority. But do not throw away that first option. Take it, do not refuse it.

I have assigned here as the special supervisor for this province, the assistant secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government in the person of assistant secretary, retired colonel Simeon M. Ventura of Laoag. I have also recently nominated him to be the sectoral representative to the House of Representatives of the veterans and the elderly. He is a well-known professor; the guro of all statisticians and public opinion surveyors in our country, and a well-known military professional and now a dedicated public servant.

So in this spirit, ladies and gentlemen, my dear townmates of Batac, let us join together in our continuing pursuit for peace and sustained progress for our country and people.

Thank you very much. (Ilocano).. Mabuhay ang Batac. Mabuhay si Ricarte. Mabuhay ang Ilocos Norte. Mabuhay ang mga Ilocano. Mabuhay lahat ang mga Pilipino. Salamat po.