| PGMA's Speech during the Vin D' Honneur in Celebration of the 105th Anniversary of Philippine Independence |
On board BRP 'Ang Pangulo' docked at Majini Port, Southern Command area Zamboanga City, Zamboanga del Sur (12 June 2003) |
| In behalf of all our people,
particularly the people of Mindanao, I welcome you. I'm glad that you could be with us today as we celebrate our freedom even as we boldly face freedom's deadliest enemies here in Mindanao. We have expanded the frontiers of freedom by building on opportunities; by meeting challenges head on; by engaging our people of various creeds, ethnic origin and social station; and by engaging the world. Our most important focus of human freedom is in Mindanao. Freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom from injustice. We shall continue the fight against terrorism and poverty until peace, security and prosperity take root in this part of the country. Freedom cannot wait, the people cannot wait. We welcome any unilateral gesture to further silence the guns. But we would rather have a permanent ceasefire leading to substantive negotiations, rather than a ceasefire by installment designed only to gain tactical advantage. I cannot blame the people for being wary because they have not seen a concrete demonstration of sincerity other than this transitory peace overtures. The national interest demands cautious vigilance even as our hopes for peace are undiminished. That is why we have reconstituted the government peace panel to prepare for a serious peace opportunity once it arises even as we sustain punitive actions against terrorist formations. My decisions on this issue will depend on national security considerations, the permanent safety of our communities and a concrete show of sincerity on the other side. We will never allow terrorism to take the upper hand. We thank the Malaysian government for its newest efforts to help us bring peace to Mindanao. We thank the organization of the Islamic conference for their full political cooperation to help move peace negotiations forward. We thank the developed countries particularly Japan, the U.S., Australia, the European countries, Canada, New Zealand, China, Korea for their engagement in Mindanao. Singly or through international organizations such as the World Bank, the Asian development bank and the U.N. system in worthy and effective programs directly striking at the recruiting grounds of conflict and rebellion. We thank the united states for his abundant pledges of material support to ensure the peace through post-conflict re-integration programs some of which are already on stream. We thank our immediate neighbors and friends from Asean for their commitments to jointly fight terrorism. The inexplicable link between what's happening in our country and what's going on in the world has never been clearer, and the inevitable integration between security and economic issues into a strategic whole has never been more apparent. I'm instructing the DFA to send a team to get the facts and maintain a direct link of communication with the Liberian authorities with regard to the Philippine hostages. OWWA must keep closely in touch with the concerned families with whom I deeply symphatize. We will do all we can to keep our nationals out of harm's way. I shall be personally monitoring this issue until it's resolved. I'm not only the leader of a nation of 80 million people but the leader of a Philippine global enterprise made up of over 8 million Filipinos living and working in over a hundred forty countries. These Filipinos arguably make up the most sophisticated global workforce ever deployed. This fact introduces a high level of complexity to Philippine foreign policy and underscores our vision to actively engage all nations and peoples to protect the interest of Filipinos the world over. Here at freedom's frontiers we need most of all to bring government back to the center of the lives of the people. We are determined to make the people of Mindanao feel that we belong to one nation. That they are in the mainstream of our nation's future. Last year, I raised the Philippine flag in a Poblacion of Lamitan in Basilan. Before that hardly anything was raised in Basilan. Neither hope nor crops could grow even in such fertile land because of brigandage and terrorism. Nothing was left where there's pillaged and plundered except sorrow, despair, pain and suffering. Now, Basilan is in peaceful reawakening as the people have started to take hold of their future using their own hands and resources aided as well by well-meaning allies for peace and development. Now, we have expanded the boundaries of our resolve to bring peace and progress to all of Mindanao. Peace where there's conflict. Progress where there is poverty. Hope where there is despair. On this note, may I mark the commemoration of Philippine Independence Day by proposing a toast to all the nations and peoples of the world as I implore the almighty to bless our efforts to work together and harder than ever to attain our dreams of world peace and prosperity. Mabuhay! |