Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
During the Commencement Exercises of the Philippine Military Academy

[Released on March 6, 1994]

Guardians of our
martial tradition

GRADUATION DAY at the PMA is a ritual of great meaning. It signifies renewal and continuity for our armed forces. We dedicate our new officers to our country’s martial tradition as we infuse new blood into our professional officer corps.

This class is well named: Bantay-Laya, “Guardian of Freedom.” Your watch on our civic liberties promises to be peaceful. We have restored internal stability; and the Asia-Pacific environment promises to give us the breathing spell to put our house in order and restore our economy to growth.

In this context, it is likely our country will ask you not to die—but also to live—for it. And living for your country is not as easy as it may seem.

Our country will ask you to be models of social responsibility—to be paragons of citizenship.

Our country will ask you never to mistake an increase in personal wealth and power as a replacement for growth in moral strength and character.

Our country will ask you always to place integrity above careerism, honor above self-interest, loyalty to country above loyalty to individualism and class.

Our country has had no instant miracle, no quick fix these past 20 months. But I venture to say: you enter the service of a nation whose efforts have not been in vain; whose pride is being restored, and whose prospects have never been brighter. Enormous problems remain, but we are no longer the same country we were when you began your studies here. Today we talk of programs for growth, not coups and military adventurism. We debate policies and programs—not who does what to whom. And when we look at the world, we think of catching up, not of falling farther behind.

The sense of defeatism gone

The sense of defeatism in our national life is gone. In its place is a new confidence and optimism—the belief that a truly free, prosperous and just society is within our reach.

“Philippines 2000” is not just a slogan or political promise; it is our shared vision and doable strategy to win the future.

As we press on in the work of development, we must also begin the long-term task of modernizing our armed forces, to meet the needs of this new time. For we have responsibilities to meet—not only to ourselves, but to our partners in the region. Though the Cold War is over, our strategic importance in our Asia-Pacific region remains. And we must be prepared to meet both the challenges and the opportunities this strategic importance confers.

All the world over, military organizations are redefining their missions to put people’s protection, relief work and conservation on a par with combat duty. For the aim of both is to preserve, reform and rebuild.

The AFP’s concurrent mission of community development and environmental protection possesses the attributes most conducive to economic development and nation building.

Look at the countries regarded as the best structured to meet the challenges of the next century. Search for the ingredients of their success, and you will come up with the values and disciplines found in the PMA curriculum.

There is the concentration on the sciences; there is the practice of sharp commands and clear responses, the habit of unequivocal communication, the immediate and precise obedience to instructions, the culture of living on less and saving more. There is also the habit of postponing gratification to a later time after success has been achieved and enjoyment has been earned.

This is the world into which you are entering: a world of intense competition because of earth’s increasing population and reduced resources.

Duty, honor, country will see you through the confusion of the times and enable you to surmount the difficult challenges. They will guide you to the place where all good soldiers wish to stand when the bugle sounds: before your tent in the gathering darkness, filled with the fulfillment that comes from a job well done at the end of the day.

This is the world into which you will graduate.

A world of increasing freedom. A world jealous of its liberty and desirous of more—yet a world too which cries for order.

Indeed, the world could have both: for the freedom of men is enhanced by self-denial and quiet valor; by perseverance against obstacles, the capacity to think logically, and the kind of grace under pressure that we call fire discipline.

This is the message I wish to impart to you.

A great deal of good has come to pass—signalling the end of tyrannical governments and the rise of democracies almost everywhere. But a great deal of suffering continues—from natural cataclysms to man-made calamities, from hunger by climatic change to hunger because of human greed, because of warlords and drug lords, because of officials who do not care for their constituents.

Today, we also speak in modem terms of harnessing new energies and even altering life forms, even as we have perfected the means to destroy all of them.

A time of change is also a time of renewal, for redefining purposes, and reinfusing energy and idealism into the organization. This time of change is a time of opportunity.

Whenever I see the long gray line of cadets, I see the hope of the future and my confidence grows that we will win it. So much idealism in one parade ground, so much talent and capacity for sacrifice from a group so small.

What if we spread such idealism over a whole country, and expand the same capacity for perseverance and sacrifice to the nation as a whole? What could we not accomplish?

The Filipino soldier’s mission expands beyond fighting the wars of his country to making our country worth fighting for.

The Filipino soldier’s mission stretches beyond the most obvious duties attached to the profession of arms—to other social roles he must play. Such roles as relieving the distress of his countrymen, when they are stricken by calamities; securing their persons from harm; protecting their freedom and dignity when they are oppressed; and defending their patrimony when others cast a greedy eye on it.

The Filipino soldier must, above all, serve as the model of those virtues the country sorely needs to attain sustained development and progress: enterprise, self-confidence, perseverance, self-abnegation and scientific curiosity.

I would ask no more of you than is asked of a soldier. For what a soldier regularly undertakes is to give his life, which is the most that any man can give.

I will not ask you to pledge that you be a credit to our country. And do honor to your profession through actions over and above the call of duty. The duty of a soldier is to work and fight, and give his life when called upon to do so. What more can he give?

Exhortations to rise above the ordinary cuts no ice with soldiers. For the extraordinary is what soldiers ordinarily do.

In fact, I will not ask anything of you. For, I recall, it is enough to repeat to the soldier those brief and famous words: “Gentlemen, our country expects you to do your duty.” And the officers will lead, the men will fight, the work will be done, and the battle will be won.