Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
On the Eighth Anniversary of the People’s Power Revolution at EDSA
[Released on February 25, 1994]
From revolution
to resolution
OVER THE EIGHT YEARS we have gathered here to mark the anniversary of our People Power Revolution of 1986, we have not merely been marking time.
We have been coming here not just to rekindle old memories—as glorious as those memories may be.
We have not been renewing our ties to one another simply for comradeship’s sake—as noble as that bond may be.
You and I have chosen to meet here—at this time every year—because we see in EDSA not just a path to the past, but a highway to the future.
Today we’re here again—less to recall what we did then, than to ask ourselves what we have done since; and what we intend to do from now on.
Giving substance to the spirit of 1986
And even as we ask ourselves these questions, it is to the spirit of EDSA that we must return, and from which we must draw sustenance and resolution.
For without the courage of the millions of men and women who stood with us here then—and the millions more who prayed with us and for us in their homes all over the archipelago and in many parts of the outside world—this moment would not have been possible.
It was that outpouring of civic idealism, that cumulative courage, that collective prayer which secured our liberation from tyranny.
To EDSA and its heroes, then, we owe this opportunity to meet under the peaceful skies of freedom, to bask in the sunlight of our restored democracy.
And to EDSA and its heroes, we owe the responsibility of giving substance to the spirit of 1986—of delivering on their promise to move this nation and this people forward.
Toward Philippines 2000
My predecessor, President Corazón C. Aquino, laid the foundations of that transition. Her dedication to the democratic ideal— against all odds—reinforced our transition to political freedom. And what she began, we must now complete.
Let me also express our gratitude to the Honorable Juan Ponce Enrile, who is on a mission to Myanmar. He wrote me a letter, from which I quote:
Dear Mr. President:
Today culminates four dramatic days of exciting national upheaval staged before the eyes of the entire world eight years ago when you, the Filipino people, our religious faithful, our men in uniform, and I united to share that rare determination to willingly forfeit life, material possessions and honor in order to redeem our country from the shackles of authoritarianism.
I urge our people on this day to remember EDSA not for the things that had already been done to attain its purpose, but for the things that have been left undone in order to elevate our nation to a higher level of achievement.
Let us, therefore, unite once again as we did before under the same spirit of EDSA, and pursue its vision so that we can finally construct a better future for our people and country.
Nais ko ring banggitin, sa pagkakataong ito, si Jaime Cardinal Sin. Batid nating lahat ang mahalagang papel na ginampanan niya noong mga araw ng kalituhan at takot . . . Bukod dito ay naging mahalagang tinig at gabay si Cardinal Sin sa lahat ng ating pagsisikap nitong nakaraang panahon.
Higit sa lahat, nais kong pasalamatan ang Panginoong Maykapal. Hindi niya tayo pinabayaan sa mga panahon ng ligalig. Hinayaan din niyang magbunga ang lahat ng ating pagsisikap.
So we took this opportunity last year to launch our country toward the future.
We defined a national strategy for rapid growth, for basic change and for enduring prosperity. We call that vision “Philippines 2000.”
When I first spoke to you about “Philippines 2000,” some of our countrymen—perhaps made cynical by the disappointments and political rhetoric of the past—held back their support and their enthusiasm.
They doubted this Administration could achieve what had eluded its predecessors over two generations.
And yet this is precisely what we have begun to accomplish.
No brownouts in our future
Over the past year we have enhanced political stability and turned the economy around.
We have strengthened our friendship with our neighbors and allies in the Asia-Pacific.
Best of all, we have made peace among ourselves—with Government embarking on a peace process with the Communist Left, the military rebels and our estranged Muslim brothers.
Our ultimate goal is to give every Filipino a genuine stake in our country through productive and nonviolent ways.
These initial accomplishments enable us now to focus all our talents, resources and energies on re-invigorating our beloved Philippines and its economy.
Speaking of energy, I am sure we all appreciate that full electric power has been restored all over the country.
There shall be no brownouts in our future.
What has been accomplished so far has evoked an upsurge of optimism in the business community. Our stock market, for one, has become the best performing exchange in Asia. And foreign investment has begun to come in from all over the Asia-Pacific—and the world.
I am confident we can build the economic and social base from which to launch ourselves into an era of prosperity for all.
But this change for the better requires something basic of all of us. It requires a change of attitude—from the pessimism, divisiveness and self-interest that have held us back—to a forward-looking philosophy and momentum of growth.
No enduring change is possible in our society and economy without this change from within.
Our need for civic responsibility
The Philippine State has historically required extraordinarily little of its citizens. And, as individuals, we Filipinos acknowledge few obligations to the national community. But this mutual indifference between State and citizen cannot go on.
Only with civic responsibility does sustained development become possible in a democratic society.
Opinion surveys show how extravagant are Filipino expectations from Government. For example, 85 percent of respondents to a Social Weather Stations poll in early 1993 said it was Government’s responsibility to provide jobs for all; and 84 percent thought it was Government’s responsibility to provide basic incomes for all.
But while people’s sense of their civic entitlements may be well developed, their sense of civic responsibility is not—as we can see from the extent of tax evasion and the near anarchy of Metro Manila traffic.
This imbalance we need to correct. We need to remember that moral claims are not a one-way street. The national community has just as valid claims on us as individuals and as families, as social classes and ethnic groups.
It summons all of us to share the burden—to pay the price—of social justice and economic growth.
In our time the price of development is a heavy one. Not only must we energize the economy back to self-sustaining growth. We must make good the public investments that had been foregone during the long period of fiscal crisis.
And we must keep the consolidated public-sector deficit in check—to hold down both inflation and national interest rates.
Over these past years, both natural and man-made calamities have devastated our public infrastructure, depleted the Treasury and prevented Government from making the yearly investments in farm-to-market roads, highways, bridges, ports, airports and transport systems over which the commerce of the nation must pass.
Apart from physical infrastructure, continuous investments must also be made in human capital—in primary health care and in basic education; in medical clinics and safe drinking water; in hospitals and schoolbuildings that care for the bodies and the minds of ordinary Filipinos.
To delay these investments is to condemn the economy to stagnation and decline. And stagnation and decline have been our economy’s lot until now.
The price of development
In economics there is no such thing as a free lunch. Development always exacts a price.
Ideally the price of progress must be paid by those groups in national society best equipped to bear the sacrifice. The burden of development must fall the hardest on those elements that can best carry it.
This is the objective of the tariff and tax-reform package my Administration is now finalizing—to spread the costs of urgent public investments, in physical and human capital, among those sectors that can best pay it.
Since public investments cannot wait on the legislative debate, we have had to impose a one-peso oil levy—drawing the tax not directly out of people’s pockets, but as an advance from the Oil Price Stabilization Fund.
The only other alternative to the levy would have been for Government to borrow the money. But borrowing is no real alternative, because borrowing mortgages the future—and God knows we’re deep in debt already.
Without the levy, we could not have ended the long brownouts that had become the symbol of our entire economy’s chronic debility.
The rest of this illustrative story we all know. The executive branch has lifted the oil levy; and Congress has assured the passage of alternative revenue measures of a recurring nature. The most urgent public investments will not be jeopardized—although, according to our best estimates, the lifting of the levy will still mean the delay of projects that could generate some 100,000 jobs; and the building of 5,000 schoolhouses.
Philippine democracy works
For its part the executive branch has committed to do its share by belt-tightening, plugging leaks, prosecuting fraud and corruption, streamlining the bureaucracy.
The oil-levy issue was contentious—even emotional. But it also proved we have achieved more than just social and political cohesion. It proved that Philippine democracy works.
It proved our representative system is once again strong enough to reconcile even passionate differences within the national community by consultation and dialogue—by our political, business and civic leaders, including representatives of the extremes in the social spectrum—reasoning and solving problems together.
The decision to lift the oil levy challenges us to strengthen our solidarity—because the real adversaries are poverty and injustice—and in the long run, what is paramount is that we lift up the common life and raise our country to the dignity it deserves in the community of nations.
Now that we have set up the framework and mechanisms for consultative problem-solving, we can move on, as a more unified people, to deeper reform—to leveling the playing field of enterprise; dismantling cartels and monopolies injurious to the public interest; opening the economy to foreign competition; and sharing more equitably the burden of development and distributing more democratically the fruits of progress.
In this work of basic socioeconomic reform, the spirit of EDSA shall be our standard, our guide and our inspiration.
A million Filipinos together
If there was anything to be learned from EDSA, it was that a million Filipinos together could do what a million Filipinos apart could not. I now ask all Filipinos to return to that same spirit of unity and common purpose, so that we may use it as a renewed and indomitable spirit of change.
We have entered a new age of opportunity—the opportunity to transform the spirit of EDSA 1986 to the substance of Philippines 2000. If we pull together—as one united people—we shall not fail.
Finally, my countrymen, I look forward to seeing all of you again six years hence—when we shall have achieved Philippines 2000.
By then, my watch on the Presidency being over, I shall be down there among you in the crowd. But I will stand tall, and proud, and happy, that I had a small part in making that triumphant moment possible, by what we resolve to do here and now.