Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
During the Philippine Army Centennial Celebration

[Delivered at Fort Bonifacio, Makati City, March 22, 1997]

A hundred
years of heroism

WE MUST CONSIDER ourselves fortunate to be here today at this very moment, which is the 100th anniversary of that time in Philippine history when the Philippine Revolutionary Government and the Philippine Army, the precursor of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, were born.

An army born in revolution

The Philippine Army was born in revolution—hardened in a nationalist war, and tested again and again by rebellion, insurgency and secessionism. Today, in marking its formal founding at Tejeros, Cavite, on March 22, 1897, we commemorate one hundred years of heroism—for that is the single best word that one can use to describe the Filipino martial tradition and the Philippine Army.

From here, at Fort Bonifacio, Lieutenant General Mariano, commanding general of the Philippine Army; Defense Secretary de Villa; General Acedera, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, and I will move on to Tejeros in what is now known as Rosario, Cavite, to take part in that centennial celebration—not by horseback as in the old days—but by helicopter.

Generations of warriors

And then on the 24th of March, some of us will go to Batac, Ilocos Norte, to honor Artemio Ricarte, the first captain general of the Revolutionary Army (which is the equivalent of the Armed Forces’ Chief of Staff). As you can see today, therefore, we launch a series of commemorative events that highlight the heroism of that Revolutionary Army, now the Philippine Army and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

This martial tradition goes back to the generations of warriors beginning with the Mactan chieftain, Lapu-Lapu, who said to all, “I bow to no man, I pledge allegiance only to my people.” That is why he is now called the first reservist of the Philippine Army. That should change his reputation, which is sometimes negative in that he is said to be the one who killed the first foreign tourist in the Philippines (Magellan). The heroic tradition also comes from the likes of Andres Bonifacio, the hero of the Katipunan, and carried on by the young general, Gregorio del Pilar, who died—faithful to his duty—at Tirad Pass in the mountains of North Luzon, as rear guard to General Aguinaldo’s column, making its way to the First Republic’s last capital at Palanan in Isabela.

Today, we recall the ringing names of many other gallant men—including the trench-builder Edilberto Evangelista and the guerrilla commander Miguel Malvar to whose collective memory the Philippine Army can now identify with pride.

At its peak, this army’s precursor—the Katipunan—apparently had some 30,000 men—all volunteers, uniformed it is true in their snappy rayadillo uniforms, but without formal training, without tactical or strategic expertise, many armed with no more than bolos, still a ragtag army Nevertheless, it fought and prevailed over a Western army—once the terror of Europe—and won our independence over them.

Zapote River turning red

Our first army had artillery consisting only of lantakas and bamboo “cannons” reinforced with wire and timber shoring. But they won because of their belief in their cause, the support of the people, and their spirit of self-sacrifice. Their lives they gave up unstintingly. Indeed, at the battle of Zapote Bridge, an eyewitness reported seeing the waters of the river below turn red with blood—so heavy were the Filipino casualties, which included General Edilberto Evangelista.

And this is the present martial tradition that you and I, the veterans, you the present crop of officers and enlisted personnel, the men and women of the Armed Forces, and of the Philippine Army must now carry on in our time.

I am delighted to note that among the ranks of our awardees today are two women who have shown their bravery and their skills not only in the field of battle but also in the field of governance. I am alluding to Mayor Lita Nuñez of our grand city of General Santos in the South (who is in her combat uniform) who is being decorated for acts of bravery and gallantry deserving of the Bronze Cross. Alam ko ang katapangan ni Lita Nuñez. lyan ay ilang beses tinapunan ng granada sa plataporma doon sa General Santos, ngunit hindi siya tumakbo. Kanyang inalagaan muna ang mga patay at mga sugatan na kanyang mga tauhan at mga kasama.

A new struggle against poverty

And the other awardee is none other than the youngest female governor in Philippine history, Governor of Agusan del Norte Rosedel Amante, for her discipline and for her determination in bringing development to the Caraga region (she is the chairperson of its regional development council). Because of this, Caraga is now picking up from its old history of insurgency and backwardness into a brighter regional growth area.

Every generation of Filipinos must fight for freedom and independence in its own time. Fortunately, your generation’s time is a time of peace—both here at home and in the larger Asia-Pacific region of which we are part. Today, our country calls you—the officers and the enlisted personnel and the civilian employees of the Philippine Army and of the Armed Forces—not just to die for the country—but more than that, to live for it.

Today our country’s struggle for freedom takes on another form: freedom from want, freedom from economic insecurity, freedom from injustice, freedom to live our lives to the utmost of our possibilities.

In this struggle, it is not an armed adversary that we must confront—but economic deprivation or poverty, ignorance, criminality, corruption, divisiveness and injustice.

Our greatest need today is still political stability. For civil order is the foundation of economic development and social cohesion in our time. And this stability only our Armed Forces can underwrite for our country.

Our first imperative is to establish lasting peace here at home—so that we can work harmoniously as a nation and attend to the basic needs of our people without undue interruption and disturbance. Wars in our time are best fought no longer in the field—but in the field of the classrooms, research laboratories, factories, farms and our backward communities.

Social equity is the key

And in consonance with these challenges, our Army must not only modernize its equipment and its weaponry. It must also develop highly-skilled soldiers, and well-motivated commanders with a national orientation and a global outlook.

You, my beloved countrymen and countrywomen, can depend on our Government to take the lead in sustaining and developing our economic viability and competitiveness as a nation. In a world more interdependent than it has ever been, I am therefore firmly convinced, as your President and commander in chief, that economic development with social equity is the key not only to the progress and well-being of our nation but also to the peace and stability of our Asia-Pacific region. In our time, economic power equates with national security, stability and public welfare.

That is why the Ramos Administration considers national security dependent on our political stability, on our economic strength and on our social cohesion as a people. And that is why we have embarked on a program to liberalize, democratize, deregulate and decentralize key sectors of our economy. We have also started looking at cooperativism and entrepreneurship as crucial factors in attaining competitiveness in agriculture and industry.

Strategies for growth and development

Over and above these social and economic reform measures, we have also embarked on a huge infrastructure program in power generation, highways improvement, seaports, airports and telecommunications—with a significant participation of the private, domestic and foreign sectors—through an expanded Build-Operate-Transfer scheme and similar programs.

All over the country, we have opened areas for foreign investment and enterprise. And these include the vast and excellently developed Subic Bay area, the Clark Complex, the CALABARZON subregion, Cebu-Mactan, and the entire island of Mindanao, which is rich in both natural and human resources and is a strategic transshipment point.

All these give us much reason to hope that early in the next century, our country can complete its economic and technological modernization and substantially reduce poverty. This is our shared vision of “Philippines 2000″—your battle cry and mine since 1992.

And so, on this modern battleground, this Army must continue exploring all its opportunities to help bring our country to its desired goals of social reform, political maturity and sustainable economic development. It is in this context that your anniversary theme—”Hukbong Katihan ng Pilipinas: Isang Daang Taong Kaakibat sa Kapayapaan at Kaunlaran” —acquires meaning and significance.

Iyan ang hamon sa inyo, mga taga-Philippine Army! Ang hamon sa inyo ay kaya ba ninyo ito? Kaya ba nating mga Pinoy?

In an emerging country like ours, the army is of great social and economic significance. In the diverse ethnic origins of its officers and men and women, it is instantly a symbol and an institution of national unity.

And the army is a catalyst for change—an agent of modernization. In its order and discipline, it stands for the civic virtues necessary for the survival and the development of a new nation.

Battleground of modernity

Over the past year, our Armed Forces has concentrated on two primary objectives. The first is to contain armed threats to our national society. And the second is to fast-track its reorientation, and redirection toward greater effectiveness, efficiency and service in the national interest and our people’s well-being.

I am told that in 1996, this Army neutralized—meaning killed, captured, wounded or somehow put under Government control—more than 1,400 individuals belonging to various threat groups and recovered more than 1,200 illegally possessed firearms. At the same time, the intensification of the peace initiative in Mindanao restored civil order to dozens of barangays previously classified as critical.

And complementing these operations in internal security operations is its new focus on community development, described to us just now by General Mariano. But among others, Army teams set up 124 cooperatives, and established 42 micro-forests with the planting of more than 600,000 trees, and its literacy patrols conducted more than 700 courses in depressed rural areas. Its engineer corps completed more than 300 kilometers of roads all over the country, and a substantial number of buildings and bunkhouses for lahar victims in Central Luzon.

The army of the future

While carrying out your peacetime duties, you of the Army must prepare yourselves for the conflicts of the future. Today’s world is at the threshold of a military revolution—really a new military evolution based on the new technologies of communications, guidance and navigation, and computerization. New weapons and new systems of command, control, communications and computing are revolutionizing the very concept and organizations of armies in the entire world.

The army of the future will be much smaller—much more compact, more professional—more technically expert. Even its organization will be drastically different: command will be more decentralized; task forces or joint forces grouping of ground, naval and air units assisted by Local Government officials will probably be the norm.

And therefore, we must prepare our Armed Forces for this military revolution or evolution—to the best of our ability and to the limit of our means.

So—even as we commemorate the centennial year of the Philippine Army—we must look to the future. We must commit ourselves to the task of building a stable, prosperous and competitive society—because only such a society is our guarantee of security in the world of the 21st century.

The Philippine Army of the future will be needing more “information warriors”—men and women expert in the new systems and in the new cultures of command these weapons will call for.

But the basic military values that you and I, young and old, active and retired, learned here in the Philippine Army and in our Armed Forces will remain: love of country, courage, skill, audacity—self-sacrifice. And with these basic virtues, this Army and this Armed Forces are sufficiently endowed—descending as they do from the heroic officers and men and women of Filipino revolts and revolutions against foreign colonizers of hundreds of years ago.

Taking pride in our revolutionary heritage

In this hundredth year of our Army, therefore, I urge all of you—the officers and enlisted men and women, the regulars and reserves, the veterans and retirees, the active members and their families—to continue setting the example, and serving as the inspiration of responsible citizenship and gallantry for all our countrymen and countrywomen.

Take pride in our revolutionary heritage, and in the heroes’ blood that runs in our veins, and in the love of country implanted in our hearts—by that revolutionary army founded in Tejeros, Cavite, by Bonifacio and Aguinaldo a hundred years ago.