Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
Before the Veterans’ Federation of the Philippines Annual Assembly

Delivered at the Philippine International Convention Center, Roxas Boulevard, October 11, 1993]

The veterans’ faith

MORE than just camaraderie and fellowship bring us together every year without fail. We gather here today also for an even more important reason—to take stock of where our country is today and where it is going.

Without some accounting of how our country has fared after conflicts and trials, the sacrifices of so many would be for naught. Without redemption in terms of greater stability and progress in our national life, the heroism of comrades would be robbed of meaning.

Country on the move

But we meet at an auspicious time for our country. Though difficulties remain, we are a country at peace and on the move. Our democracy has never been more secure. And for the first time in many decades, there is hope that our dreams and objectives as a nation can be fulfilled.

For this, neither I nor my Administration can claim full credit. Nor do I underestimate the enormous problems still facing us. I say only that in surmounting our many national trials, we are finally transforming our unity of interests as a people into a unity of purpose as a nation. We have reached the threshold of development—ours is the unique opportunity and challenge to make it truly happen.

Today there is much more to say what is right with the

Filipino and about this country. Today there is greater faith in the Filipino—here at home and abroad.

As in war, so in peace, the fate of nations rests on faith.

Amid the trials of war, we were all nurtured by the thought we would succeed, not because of what we had but because of what we were; not because of what we possessed, but because of what we believed in. In the strength of our faith, we prevailed.

The same is true of the trials now before us. It is not by licking our wounds or lamenting our problems that we will surmount them. It is not by relying on the kindness of others that we will overcome our difficulties. Rather, it is by our doing and daring.

Today, when we all realize how much time we’ve lost and how many opportunities we have squandered, I believe we’re finally getting our act together. We have made a decisive start at turning the nation around. We have launched reforms for which we had lacked the political will in times past. And for the first time in nearly a generation, we are seeing millions and millions of our countrymen taking part in the struggle to move our nation forward.

Faith in democracy

We are not prepared to accept—no Filipino should accept—second- or third- or fourth-rate status for our country.

As a people and as a nation, we can compete. And I submit, my fellow veterans, that we stand on very solid ground.

It has sometimes been suggested that because of our exuberant democratic tradition, we have achieved too much freedom and too little development. Consequently, it has further been suggested that we would be better off instilling more discipline and less democracy.

We who have fought so hard for the blessings of freedom and democracy in our country reject this counsel. I say, let us improve our discipline and protect our democracy.

We believe that progress must come with freedom, and never at its expense. Other people may see their priorities differently, but ours have been shaped on the anvil of experience and in the crucible of war—four and a half centuries of colonialism and several wars of independence.

If in the making of a democratic society we have forged further ahead than much of Asia, then that is our good fortune, and we should make the most of it.

If in the pursuit of development, democracy poses procedural difficulties, then so be it. We would not want it otherwise—certainly not at the price of another experiment in authoritarianism.

Throughout our history, many have been the times when we have had to stand and fight together—in quest of freedom, in defense of freedom and in pursuit of the blessings that come with freedom. It would be a travesty of history; it would be a mockery of the sacrifices of our veterans and fallen comrades if in the present struggle for development, we mortgaged our democracy for some easy gains.

This nation, which was founded on the blood of martyrs, will survive and prosper on the strength, not on the weakness, of its democratic faith.

For such a nation as we, there is no road to development other than the way to freedom and democracy.

What it takes to develop

But we must also guard against the costly illusions of the past—that democracy by itself can bring development; that having installed the right to vote, we have therefore empowered our citizenry; that national economic recovery can come without fundamental reform; that economic prosperity can result from the trickling down of benefits from the rich to the poor; that the nation can advance with only a few sectors enjoying the resources for development.

Today, it is plain that we can develop and modernize only to the extent that we have more authentic democracy in our society, not less.

We cannot instill efficiency in our economy save by pervasive reform in the way we do things and apportion the resources for creating wealth.

We cannot improve Government save by driving off the vultures of corruption from the bureaucracy and our public life.

We cannot have peace and stability unless we handcuff once and for all the forces of crime and rebellion, which threaten the peace of our streets, the safety of our homes and the security of our republic.

We cannot have the resources to finance these great endeavors unless Government fully gets from taxpayers what is due it and unless we demonstrate our capability to collect what is diie the public coffers.

And we cannot have development unless we harness and release the energies and talents of our millions of people who want to produce, to create, to advance and to achieve the blessings of life that they believe are theirs to win.

Empowering the veterans

My fellow veterans, it was in rigorous terms that we were called upon to serve our people and our country in the trials of war. Nothing came easy. There were no quick fixes, no short cuts to victory. But in the end—with courage and faith in ourselves—we prevailed.

The same faith, the same courage, must serve our country now. If this nation dares, as our founding fathers and veterans dared during their time, we can surely surmount the challenges of the present. I have no doubt we will achieve our shared national vision embodied in “Philippines 2000.”

As may already be known to you, pursuant to Republic Act 6948, the Government’s 1994 budget has some P1.678 billion allocated to standardize and increase the pension of veterans. A few days ago, the House of Representatives approved the 1994 budget, so it is likely this figure of PI .678 billion will stay. This is the least we can offer to those of you who risked your lives so that we may enjoy freedom today.

I have also certified a bill that doubles to P1,000 the old-age monthly pension of our veterans 65 years old and above. Moreover, I have certified as a priority Administration measure House Bill 8865, which grants dual citizenship to Filipino World War II veterans who had acquired U.S. citizenship, but chose to stay in the Philippines. We certainly sympathize with veterans who, on acquiring U.S. citizenship, become virtual aliens in their own country and yet are unable to meet the financial requirements of acquiring residency status in their adopted homeland.

Pursuing unresolved claims

Also in place are various programs and initiatives for the welfare of our veterans. You have identified and developed most of these yourselves for my support, which I have given.

On my forthcoming visit to the United States I shall take up with the highest U.S. authorities the unresolved claims of Filipino veterans on the American government.

I thank you for this manifesto of support you have presented me. Your continued faith and assistance will be invaluable in the days, months and years to come.

Let me say in response that I will steadfastly work for the continued upgrading and improvement of the benefits program for our veterans community.