PGMA's Speech during the Dinner hosted by the Filipino-American Community

Capitol Hilton Hotel Washington D.C., U.S.A. - (18 May 2003)
Thank you very much, Ambassador del Rosario.

Let me also introduce to all of you the different officials in my delegation: from the Senate, we have Senate President and Mrs. Frank Drilon; from Congress, we have Speaker and Mrs. Joe de Venecia; we also have Congressman Teddy Boy Locsin, who's here with Mrs. Locsin. He's a Congressman from Makati; we also have the Congressman from Bacolod City, Monico Puentevella; and we have a Congressman from Bataan, Antonino Roman; from the local government units, we have the Governor of Batangas, Dodo Mandanas.

From the Executive, we have, of course, our Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Blas Ople; our Executive Secretary, Bert Romulo; our Secretary of Finance, who's here with his wife, Lito Camacho; our Secretary of Agriculture, Cito Lorenzo; our Secretary of Defense, Angelo Reyes; our Trade Secretary, Mar Roxas; our Energy Secretary, Vince Perez; our Tourism Secretary, Dick Gordon.

And before I go on to introduce the others, least I forget later on, Dick wants me to remind you about the volunteer twelve program. You know about that, don't you? Oh, we've been talking about it for the past two years with the Philippine-American community. Dick is asking you to bring a friend to the Philippines. Be a volunteer tourism promoter for the Philippines. And there are prizes for the outstanding promoters, those who bring the most number of visitors. But you have fun yourself when you go or even if you send them to the Philippines even if you don't go yourself. Its been successful, but I'd like to let you know -- and I think dick would like me to let you know -- that the Japanese, the Koreans and the Chinese have already outpaced the Filipino-American tourist to the Philippines. So, I hope you can catch up with them again.


And to continue with our members of the delegation, we have National Security Adviser Roy Golez; we have the adviser for OFWs, Sonny Alvarez; we have the Secretary for Strategic Projects, Mai Jimenez; we have my Senior Presidential Assistant for Political Affairs, Joey Rufino, who's here with Mrs. Rufino.

Let me thank also the three major organizers of this event. Primarily, of course, the Philippine American Foundation headed by Irene Natividad; the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations headed by Loida Nicolas-Lewis; . And I must acknowledge the American Coalition of Filipino Veterans headed by Pat Gao.

I would like to greet the various FILCOM organizations present here tonight, some of them were already mentioned by Irene Natividad. But I think, I should first of all, in general, greet the members of the Filipino-American communities representing the different organizations in the U.S. particularly New Jersey, you're here, aren't you? I met a delegation from Pennsylvania earlier, Michigan. Thank you for coming all the way; yes, Chicago; the individuals from Washington D.C.

Earlier, I also met the Philippine-American Bar Association. And there was a signing with the counterpart international. Also I'd like to greet the Philippine-American Chamber of Commerce. And as Irene mentioned, the Nanay, Mabuhay! And all the other organizations who are present here. I know many of you also belong to the different ethnic groups within our country, so I welcome all of you and thank you to be here.

I'm happy to be with the D.C. community. And I'm happy to see others coming from all over the country here.

I used to be a member of the D.C. Filipino community myself when I was a student in Georgetown University. So was my daughter Luli, who also studied in Georgetown. In fact, Luli and her contemporaries -- and many of them, I hope are here, but there are others who have gone back to manila -- and they still get together and they call themselves the "D.C.-itizens."

Well, when I was here in Georgetown, a long time ago, that was another world. A world with more certainties. The issues dividing the world were clearer then -- democracy and peace vs. Totalitarianism and war.

The issues are not so clear today.

There are vast national movements that favor religious totalitarianism and popularly backed dictatorships that favor war. The violence of police states is now matched by the violence of small groups of fanatics who, in a single act, can kill thousands of innocent people by turning the most harmless conveniences of modern life like airplanes into weapons of mass destruction. Airplanes, car bombs, yes, fully-laden commercial airlines.

In this new world of the 21st century, there seemed no clear way out of a world sinking into fear and violence. But the world changed again. And it happened by force of will and strength of character.

It happened on march 20th, when a U.S.-led coalition of countries decided that the best way to overcome fear and answer violence is to oppose them without equivocation and defeat them without question. The outcome is a victory welcomed by everyone. Except, of course, the technocrats of terror and tyranny in Iraq.

That victory in turn has created a new global environment, and that new environment has created the need for a new perspective on political and economic security.

Asia, including the Philippines, must take greater responsibility for our own political and economic security. Yet, we must recognize that strong relations with the U.S. will contribute greatly to regional stability and progress in Asia. And that strong relations with the U.S will enhance immeasurably the prospects of success in addressing terrorism at home and throughout the world.

You, the Filipino-Americans, especially the young people who made their presentation personify the relations between the Philippines and America. Those relations are no longer just in the realm of minds, or values, or ideology. They are in people, our young Filipino-Americans. You the Filipino-Americans are the human link between the two biggest democracies on both sides of the pacific. You, the Filipino-Americans are a part of the train of shared values of democracy, free enterprise and economic freedom that are the strongest foundation for a world of peace and progress.

We pay tribute to the Filipino-Americans, the young soldiers, the senior officers, as we pay tribute to the Filipino servicemen and women back home. Yes, servicemen and women back home and Filipino-American servicemen and women out here must be thanked for their enormous contributions in the fight against terrorism in the Philippines, in Iraq and wherever else the threat of terrorism calls them.

We are proud of those who have served with distinction in the U.S. armed forces. We have some of them present here today. We are proud of those who have reached senior officer rank, and we are proud of those, who though they have not reached yet, fought most recently in Iraq.

And so to the young Fil-Am soldiers, and to the senior Fil-Am officers in the U.S. armed forces, I salute you for your bravery and sacrifice for freedom that both our countries enjoyed. You are the spiritual if not the blood descendants of our Filipino veterans who fought for freedom in the second world war and whose cause we are here to advance again in Washington.

We will continue to work for legislation extending equity benefits for our veterans and our guerillas. The last time I came to Washington, we almost made it, did'nt we? After the last time I came to Washington, the Veterans Bill passed the House of Representatives and reached the U.S. Senate appropriations committee. But time ran out when the congressional elections were held, a new Congress was formed, we have to start all over again.

But this was the story, too, of the Overseas Voting Bill that Loida Nicolas was thanking our Senators and Congressmen about. Because the Overseas Voting Vill in the Philippines kept being introduced, reaching committee level sometimes administration after administration. Finally, in my administration, we passed it into law.

Learning from that lesson, let us therefore push the Veterans Bill with the same tenacity in the U.S. Congress. For my part, I will take it up again in my meeting with President Bush tomorrow.

And I am confident that at least as a beginning, President Bush will support legislation extending full rate service-connected disability compensation; eligibility for burial at national cemeteries; burial benefits for new scouts lawfully residing in the united states; full rate dependency and indemnity compensation to the survivors of new scouts, Commonwealth Army Veterans and guerillas who lawfully reside in the United States; and reauthorization for the Regional Veteran Affairs office in Manila.

Itong mga ito, as a beginning, these benefits come with an appropriation of 75 million U.S. dollars.

I would also like to report that since my last visit to Washington, the U.S. government has been providing medical equipment to the Veterans Memorial center in Quezon City in order to serve the veterans who live in the Philippines.

To give a boost to our veterans' lobby, I have appointed a veteran's son, Jerry Adevoso, the son of the famous guerilla leader Terry Adevoso, as the representative to the U.S. of the Philippine Veterans Administration. He is tasked to coordinate lobby efforts for veterans' legislation. I thank Irene for the 3,000 dollars that was donated by PAF for this lobby effort, and I will also provide Jerry Adevoso a counterpart 3,000 dollars to help our veterans in this lobby effort.

I just came from Hollywood, and I want to let you know that you also have enthusiastic support from famous Hollywood descendants of our veterans. There's Lou Diamond Phillips, whose father was an American soldier in Subic. And last night, I had dinner with Dean Devlin, the grandson of a Veteran from Iloilo, who is the producer of films - I'm sure you know about -- the Patriot, Independence Day, Godzilla. Dean Devlin and Lou Diamond Phillips, I noticed have something very much in common. They adore their mothers, and their mothers happened to be full-blooded Filipinas. Tha's why Dean Devlin, the producer of the Patriot and Independence Day, -- the number 6 biggest grossing film in history -- is willing to produce a video to support the Veterans Bill.

The chances of seeing the veterans' bill pass have also increased with the formation of an unprecedented U.S.-Philippine caucus in the U.S. Congress. This Philippine caucus formally organized is committed to support Philippine concerns. This development is a clear indication of the growing voting power of the Philippine-American community. In the Philippines, we have a Central Luzon caucus, a nothern alliance, a Mindanao bloc. Now, in Congress, in the U.S., there is a hilippine caucus.

In over ten percent of the whole membership of the lower house of Congress have joined this friendship caucus. I congratulate Ambassador Albert del Rosario for working very hard to achieve this. Ambassador del Rosario has been working very hard, not only for congress of the U.S. to form the Philippine caucus, but for many other things to promote the welfare of the Philippines and Filipinos in America. But he could use more help. You, in this room already helped him. But in addition, to have even more help, were establishing three honorary consulates in the United States for a start. For a start, Dr. Angelo Macatangay is our new honorary consul in Miami.

We want to establish as many honorary consulates as practicable, because as a former D.C.-itizen myself, I want to make sure that our government is always within the reach of Filipinos in America. I share with you a personal bond with your families, a bond whose strength and reverence is distinctly Filipino.

And so, as I begin officially my state visit tommorow, I ask you, Filipino-Americans, let us strengthen that bond even more so that wherever we are, from one end of the world to the other, we can build the strong and proud republic of our dreams.

Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat.

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