INTRODUCTION
Itong taon na ito ay ang taon ng mga bayani. Isandaang taon na ang nakakalipas nang ang ating mga bayani ay nagka-isa at nagpakita ng kagitingan upang maging malaya ang ating bansa.

Napapanahon na upang tayo rin ay magpamalas na mayroon din tayong kakayahang maging maunlad at magiting sa pamamagitan ng ating pagtutulungan na maiahon ang ating mga kababayan mula sa kahirapan. Ngayong taon ng ating mga bayani, magka-isa tayo upang makamit ang tunay na kahulugan ng kalayaan: ang mapayapa at masaganang pamumuhay.

Today we begin the last two years of my presidency and our task of national administration.

A member of my cabinet has suggested this time is comparable to the “last two minutes” in basketball — when everything is laid on the line, to win or to lose.

It is a vivid metaphor — but it does not fit our present situation. We are not in such a do-or-die situation anymore. The challenge now is no longer to survive but to finish the job so we can prosper — to complete our victory against national inertia, stagnation and poverty, and to move upward with confidence towards our place in the community of progressive nations of Asia.

From here, we can look back on four eventful years that — have brought reform, recovery, and renewal to our country.

And when we look ahead — to the day of our centennial of independence and the new century looming on the horizon — we can see the outlines of a prosperous and free society.

To finish this journey is the challenge before us today. The work of completion — of policies, programs and projects — will define these final two years of my administration.

This work must begin with a review of what we have already done — not to flatter ourselves or to impress anyone, but to emplace firmly the nation on the long road to modernization and development.
MEETING ECONOMIC TARGETS
We launched the vision of “Philippines 2000!!!” — an act of telling our people what is within our capacity to build during my watch. We defined that goal in terms of three specific economic objectives:

* To raise national per capita income from $780 to at least $1,000 by 1998;

* To enable our economy to grow by an average of 6-8 percent during the remainder of the 20th century; and,

* To reduce poverty incidence among our people from about 40 percent to 30 percent.

Let us look at the results of the work that followed.

The target of income per head we exceeded last year — or three years ahead of schedule. Today, it stands at p27,909 — or $1,085 according to the current exchange rate. Thus, we have pushed up our 1998 target to $1,350.

This has been made possible by an economic turnaround that has won worldwide attention — even praise. This was achieved through the close collaboration of Congress, the executive branch and the business sector.

From zero growth at end of 1991, gross national product (GNP) grew progressively — by one percent in 1992; 2.8 percent in 1993; 5.3 percent in 1994, and 5.5 percent in 1995. In the first quarter of this year, the economy grew by 6.2 percent.

Our incidence of poverty stood at 39.9 percent in 1991. By 1994, it had been reduced to 35.7 percent and, with our continuing development programs and accelerating growth, our 1998 target is well within reach.

The best indication, perhaps, of how far we have gone is that we no longer qualify for certain overseas development assistance facilities. We have graduated from the World Bank’s International Development Assistance (IDA) facility for the poorest countries — because we have surpassed the $1,000 per-capita-income threshold.

The Philippines has also been deleted from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) list of “poor countries” in need of assistance to meet balance-of- payments problems.
PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT ARE WITHIN REACH
Economic growth, however, is only one part of the story of these past four years. Just as significant are political stability and civil peace — which are the foundations for development.

Without political stability we would not have stopped the decline of the economy and the decrease of our social cohesion. Peace is dawning on the conflicts that once seemed beyond solution.

Today — twenty years after the Tripoli Agreement — we stand at the threshold of a comprehensive, just, and durable peace in the southern Philippines.

Last week’s breakthrough in the Mindanao peace process is a fitting response to our search for multilateral solutions to national challenges. Just like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the East ASEAN Growth Area (EAGA), or the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Mindanao peace process signifies transnational partnership and solidarity for peace and development.

The involvement of the organization of the Islamic conference (OIC) in this effort broadens the reach of these partnerships to include many more nations, governments, and peoples.

I know there are anxieties about the peace and development process — within Christian communities in Mindanao; within the Muslim communities, within the national community.

But we will never triumph over conflict if we insist on garrisoning ourselves against each other. Peace means seeking consensus within the constitutional framework. Peace means finding unity in diversity. Peace means exorcising the ghosts of history — and starting anew.

I appeal to every Filipino to stand by government as we install the transitional structure called the Southern Philippines Council for Peace and Development (SPCPD) which will play a leading role in transforming Mindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi from the backwater to the front door of national progress.

The peace talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF) have resumed. We have called on the other side to move to the substantive issues, so that we can end the armed conflict with the New Peoples’ Army — and then move on progressively.

The military rebels have returned its heavy and light weapons to the government. In the meantime, I have approved an amnesty proclamation for them.

On the labor front, we have achieved industrial peace. Despite the continuing debate over the issue of an across-the-board wage hike, relations between management and labor in the country have never been better.
DEALING WITH TERRORISM AND CRIMINALITY
To deal with terrorism as a threat to our national stability and security, we have reconstituted the national action committee on anti-hijacking and terrorism. We convened last February an international conference among 19 major countries against all forms of terrorism.

In our drive against crime, we are making substantial progress — in reducing crime incidence, in improving our crime-fighting capabilities, and in fighting violent crimes.

In cooperation with the supreme court, we are also working towards the speedier disposition of criminal cases as one of the cornerstones of an effective criminal justice system.

The national summit on peace and order last April drew up a master plan for peace and order over the next nine years. This plan promotes the partnership between government and the private sector in the pursuit of public safety. And it sets clear targets for achievement year by year.

However, the brazen robbery of a jewelry shop in the heart of Makati and the continued incidence of kidnapping indicate the need for us to improve our procedures for preventing and responding to robbery and kidnapping incidents, especially in commercial centers and in schools.

We are therefore committed to continually professionalize the uniformed force by purging it of scalawags from both the PNP and AFP, and aggressively enforcing laws against graft and corruption, even as we upgrade the pay scales of our law-enforcement and military personnel.

We will vigorously pursue our moral recovery programs. In the campaign against graft and corruption, the entire bureaucracy — civil servants and uniformed personnel, elective as well as appointive executives — are the objects of scrutiny. No one is untouchable.
BRINGING GOVERNMENT CLOSER TO THE PEOPLE
But on whatever front — whether in the economy, peace and security, or social reform — it has been all-important to engage our people and local communities in active collaboration with government.

This is why we have devolved, decentralized and deregulated the tasks of governance. This is also why we have been holding out-of-town cabinet meetings — especially in the 20 priority provinces, where poverty incidence is highest.

The point we must always remember is that many of our problems are local, not national in character. So must the solutions also be. And our people, wherever they are, must begin to know that their needs are being attended to by their national leaders.

Among our provinces and cities today, morale is higher than before. This is so because they have started to believe they can develop their local economies through self-reliance — and by doing so, uplift themselves to progress.

The same call for self-help and initiative applies to the communities that make up metro manila — as i emphasized recently to its mayors. We do not aim to solve the problems of our cities — such as pollution, waste and traffic management, flood control and housing — just to please foreign officials and tourists. Solutions to these local, day-to-day problems are basic to the health and comfort of urban constituents.

But I must remind our local officials to put their own houses in order first so we can, more effectively, protect our environment, attend to people’s minimum basic needs, and fight poverty.
SUSTAINING OUR GROWTH MOMENTUM
Teamwork lies at the heart of our success so far. And to complete what we have begun, we need even more effective teamwork and stronger solidarity among us.

Let me be specific.

Reforms — sweeping and basic — underpin this country’s rise from sickness to health, from stagnation to dynamism. We have moved from a highly protected weakling economy to a liberal and resilient one, and from a system of monopolies and cartels to one where every business must compete for its share of the pie.

But the reforms already in place are not enough. We must complete the architecture of competitiveness with a comprehensive reform of our tax system — to cure once and for all the disease of tax evasion and tax irresponsibility, as well as to lift the burden of taxation from the shoulders of the “have nots” and shift proportionally more upon the shoulders of the “haves”.

We must raise, concomitantly, government’s capacity to fund our expanded investments in public infrastructure and services. We must ensure that revenues that rightfully belong to our national treasury for the benefit of our people do not end up in the pockets of an influential few but are effectively translated into roads, water supply, schools, hospitals and other needs of the many.

However far we have already come, our engine of development could still fail — if we falter in this final task.

It would be a great pity if we should fail. And failure will be the equivalent of dropping out of college — only a semester away from graduation.

The Philippines is now acknowledged as a vigorous emerging market; a competitive producer, and a growing base for investment — with an accelerating growth rate that will soon match East Asia’s phenomenal pace.

More and more investors are discovering that prospects in the Philippines are extremely good — because of a supportive democratic government, an aggressive private sector, and a wide pool of trained and skilled human resources.
INFRASTRUCTURE MODERNIZATION
Improving the fiscal position of government is vital to meeting the challenge of development. Because we face today an “infrastructure gap” that runs into billions of dollars. Because, in the past, we had failed to install, maintain or improve vital infrastructure which are — as the world bank has called — “the wheels of development.”

We have launched a massive infrastructure development program — partly through government investments, and partly through the Expanded Build-Operate-Transfer (B-O-T) Scheme, under which the private sector is encouraged to invest in public overhead capital.

Our power sector is now internationally acknowledged as a model of success rather than the object of ridicule it once was in the not-too-distant past.

From June 1992 to June 1996, we completed improving or building some 6,210 kilometers of roads and 42,525 lineal meters of bridges, an accomplishment in four years greater than that during the preceding 12-year period.

In Mindanao, we have completed the 140-kilometer Parang, Maguindanao to Marawi Road, thus providing the links that remove the isolation of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). We are likewise upgrading the highways between Cotabato, Bukidnon and Lanao del Sur, as well as the Davao-Digos-General Santos Road.

In the Visayas, we continue to undertake and complete road projects in Panay, Negros, Cebu, Bohol and Leyte-Samar.

Luzon — from west to east — is now well-paved, particularly with the recent completion of the Famy-Infanta Road that stretches to the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The Pan-Philippine highway is in much better condition, following the upgrading of the Cagayan Valley Road, including the Dalton Pass section.

Liberalization of civil aviation policy has made possible the operation of four new domestic airlines. We recently inaugurated Clark International Airport, which complements the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and Subic International Airport. Two days from now, we will inaugurate the new international airport at General Santos City.

And the construction of the Batangas International Seaport is going ahead of schedule. As we did in the electric power sector, we have unleashed private sector energies in telecommunications and shipping by deregulation and liberalization.

We have, at the same time, put in place the necessary mechanisms and programs to protect our environment and ensure sustainable development. Our program of tapping non-government organizations (NGOs), the private sector, and local communities to mount a united front against environmental degradation, has earned for us an international recognition described by Newsweek as being the “world’s first green tiger”, which aims for more growth and more jobs, but not at the expense of our environment and ecosystems.
DIPLOMACY IN THE SERVICE OF DEVELOPMENT
There is a new reality that underscores our national life. We are part of a new global economy — in which every nation must compete, if it is to prosper.

For many years, we did nothing to compete. While our neighbors challenged the west in productivity and innovation, we plodded on with the sorry products of our protected industries.

But we are now helping ourselves more than before. In place of the cold war that once consumed our diplomatic energies, we are now building partnerships with a far wider range of countries covering all continents — to foster our economic growth through intensified diplomacy and marketing promotion.

We have risen in prestige and respect in the councils of nations. We also took part last March in Bangkok in creating a new framework for cooperation between Asia and Europe (ASEM).

And now, we have the privilege of hosting the Fourth Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit of Leaders, here in Manila and Subic. This is a challenge without precedent in our history. But with the challenge comes a unique opportunity — to show what Filipinos can do and, subsequently, to profit from the effort.

We have also endeavored to provide better protection for our Filipino workers abroad through negotiations for more social security agreements, better employment contracts, and an intensified international effort for the ratification of the convention on the protection of migrant workers and their families.
A BETTER QUALITY OF LIFE FOR ALL
While foreign relations stand high in our agenda, it is not only for the approval of outsiders that we have worked so hard these past four years. We have labored with great political will to achieve economic progress — because on this rests our hope for the well-being of our people.

Economic growth and investments — whether domestic or foreign — create jobs and increase family incomes. And with jobs and other opportunities, we can secure what each and all aspire to — a higher standard of living, a better quality of life, and genuine social equity.

This is the final measure by which we must reckon progress over the past four years — and beyond.

By this measure, we have achieved much.

Over the past two years, we have been creating 1.2 million new jobs a year. A fivefold increase of easy credit to small and medium enterprises from June 1992 to December 1995 contributed significantly to the increase in employment.

But a situation where millions still are unemployed must always be cause for continuing concern.

Thus, today, it is our strategic focus to create 1.5 million new jobs a year in manufacturing, services, and agriculture — and to prepare the country for the return home of the greater part of some four million overseas workers.

This will take some doing. But I say, if we created 1.2 million new jobs in 1995, why not 1.5 million this year and next year? We just have to keep pushing and pushing — to keep emphasizing programs that will fill the need. These include promotion of cooperatives, small and medium enterprise, and the wide replication of innovative credit schemes.

One fertile area for employment generation is our countryside development program — specifically the Comprehensive Employment Strategy Program (CESP), which covers the entire length and breadth of our archipelago.

In 1991, job and livelihood opportunities were limited to Metro Manila, the Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon (Calabarzon), Cebu-Mactan, and a few other growth areas. Today, there are some 40 regional, provincial and city growth centers that are being developed simultaneously under the umbrella of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA). Even the more remote areas are being benefitted by the CESP.
SUBIC AND CLARK: HUBS FOR TRADE AND INVESTMENT
Subic has been transformed into a world-class hub for trade, investment, tourism and job generation, and Clark is duplicating Subic’s success.

The industrialization of northern Luzon, specifically of region one, is spearheaded by the automotive sector, which has set up in Pangasinan a new growth center for industry and technology. Multi-brand complementation therein is focused not only on cars but extends, as well, to aircraft assembly and overhaul.

Progress in the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) has exceeded our expectations — particularly in air services, tourism development, fisheries, and shipping. And it is turning the cities of Davao and General Santos into leading trade centers of ASEAN.

Many other configurations have come up — as adjoining cities and provinces realize the value of pooling resources and clustering forces to accelerate their growth. We have Marilaque for Manila-Rizal-Laguna-Quezon; and Socsksargen for south Cotabato-sultan Kudarat-Sarangani-General Santos.

All these attest to the brisk economic activity going on outside metro manila. All these would mean more job and livelihood opportunities, increased incomes for our workers, and reduced migration from the rural areas to our congested urban centers.

But job creation is not the only key to economic well-being. Protecting incomes from erosion due to inflation is also a vital part of the answer. During my administration, annual inflation was brought down to single-digit level.

This year, there will be further reduction to about 6.5 percent by yearend. The peso is now one of the more stable currencies in the region. We have maintained its value, both in terms of exchange with foreign currencies, and in terms of domestic purchasing power.

New companies make available to Filipino consumers new products, new services and new technologies. I cannot forget an observation of a writer for The Economist in General Santos City: A Filipino tucking a cellular phone in his belt, where he used to display a handgun.
DEEPENING OUR SOCIAL REFORM AGENDA (SRA)
Because we know we can no longer rely on growth to trickle down to the common tao, we have adopted a Social Reform Agenda (SRA). Our quest for peace, progress and social justice impels us to pursue vigorously far-reaching social reforms that are designed to pull out the root causes of discontent.

In real life, macro-economic indicators such as “GNP” and “trade balance” mean little — if they do not translate into beneficial changes in the lives of ordinary people. Our social reform agenda seeks nothing less than the equitable sharing of the benefits of growth — and the empowerment of our disadvantaged sectors.

This is why we have focused our action programs on meeting our people’s Minimum Basic Needs (MBN).

Let me repeat them, so we never forget what people’s basic concerns are: in their material needs — health, nutrition, water, environmental sanitation, income security, shelter, basic education; at the political level — participation in decision making, responsive local government, an efficient bureaucracy, and safety at home, in the streets and in the workplace.

Our Social Reform Agenda re-directs the policies of government — so that it can intervene effectively to change the lot of our poor.

We have hastened land distribution under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). We have deepened our efforts to increase productivity of farmer-beneficiaries with the development of over 600 Agrarian Reform Communities (ARCs) nationwide.

For our indigenous people — ang mga katutubong Pilipino — while we await the approval of the ancestral domain law, the government for the first time has recognized claims over their ancestral lands covering 727,000 hectares.

For the urban poor, we have continually responded to the concern of more housing, livelihood, urban renewal and resettlement programs. The relocation of families in endangered sites continue for their own safety and not because of APEC preparations.

We have also addressed the issues of women and other disadvantaged sectors: the children and youth, the handicapped, the veterans and senior citizens, and the victims of calamities.

Since it was adopted by a social reform summit in September 1994, our SRA has begun to make a difference in people’s lives — particularly in our 20 poorest provinces. It is now being carried over in all regions — particularly in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao and in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).

It also pays special attention to fifth- and sixth-class municipalities and the so-called “convergence sites” of the conditions that lead to poverty. And more important, we have tasked the governors and mayors to be directly accountable for the reduction of poverty in their provinces, cities and municipalities.
AGENDA FOR THE NEXT TWO YEARS: DEMOCRATIC DEVELOPMENT
To this task then of completing our national transformation, let us turn our attention and energies these next two years.

Two years may seem short to those who think at time merely in terms of the next elections. But to those who labor to produce and create — a day, a week, a month, a year — is always long and eventful. And two years are a long time, indeed.

So, as we begin these last two years of my presidency, I speak of tasks we still must complete.

I want to see our achievements in the economy crowned by greater vigor in business and industry that rivals the tremendous achievements of our neighbors.

I want to see us use the peace dividend to bring our strife-torn areas and our rural people into the network of progress.

I want to see the Filipino farmer respond positively to the challenges of the new world trade order through increased efficiency, productivity and profitability. This should ensure the attainment of our food security and food self-sufficiency objectives.

All this now we can do because we have already reached the take-off stage for sustainable development.

Consider this. In just four years — starting from a base of zero growth — we are today being hailed as the new Asian tiger cub and the “hottest” emerging market in the region.

In just four years, we are today regarded as living proof that democracy is not incompatible with development; that, indeed, democratic institutions can foster fertile conditions for progress, which authoritarian systems can never match.

In just four years — from a climate of pessimism and doubt about ourselves — we have wakened hope throughout the land and renewed our faith in ourselves and in the future.

If we did all these, imagine then what we can achieve from here on — with so much more upon which to build!

If we can turn ourselves from the habit of negativism to a culture of confidence and unity, imagine what we can win in two more years of concentrated effort!
CLOSING
More than a century ago — in another fateful hour for our country — Jose Rizal told his fellow exiles in Europe what needed to be done: “The field of battle is the Philippines; that is where we should meet… That is where we should help one another; that is where we should suffer or win together.”

Rizal died “without seeing the dawn.” But we who were born under the shade of what he and others planted, stand now in the gathering light of a new day.

Let us make this new dawn shine on every home and every community throughout our beloved land.

Salamat sa inyong lahat!

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!!