PGMA's Speech during the Counter Drug Mission Fusion Piston 2003 Graduation Ceremonies (Maritime Enforcement Training) |
Sangley Point Naval Base, Cavite City (07 Nov 2003) |
| Thank you very much,
Undersecretary Anselmo Avenido, the head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. May
you please sit down. Ambassador Ricciardone, and the other officials and officers of the united states government; Vice Admiral Ernesto de Leon and my other hosts here in Sangley Point. I would like to also greet our other guests, especially the father of the new Drug Enforcement Law, Congressman Tony Cuenco. I also have with me two Cabinet members: Secretary Mike Defensor and Secretary Mai Jimenez. Sa mga nagtatapos dito sa napakaimportanteng pagsasanay natin, congratulations sa inyo! You are 52 very well chosen recipients of this training program. I wish to thank the government of the United States for making this training course possible. Lahat tayo ang alam natin "Balikatan 02-1," pero ang dami-daming training na ginagawa sa pamamamagitan ng gobyerno ng Amerika at gobyerno ng Pilipinas, at ito na nga ay isa doon. And I was very happy to learn from Tim Teal, our new U.S. DEA representative to the Philippines, welcome Tim to the Philippines! I was happy to hear from his speech that our requests for other training exercises will also be forthcoming. I congratulate the graduates of this course, particularly the recipients of the honor man awards. You are 52 specially chosen trainees, and I expect you to echo what you have learned, echo it to your fellow law enforcers so that we can form a larger body of efficient and effective anti-narco and terrorism experts specializing in sea operations. I'm very happy to hear from General Avenido that this training will be followed by land-based training against terrorism and especially against drugs. Here, in this training course, we have taken one important step towards institutionalizing maritime law enforcement in our shores and enhancing our coordination with the law enforcement agencies of other lands. Terrorism, illegal drugs and other transnational crimes have increasingly threatened the peace of this world and the freedom of nations and peoples. Our country is no stranger to terrorism, which has victimized our southern Philippines for a long time now. As President George Bush said in his recent state visit here: "both our nations are threatened by terrorism, and we are determined to fight that threat until it is defeated." The Philippines will do its share, with the help of this and other training programs, and other forms of assistance that the U.S. has extended to us through the years, and especially during the last two and-a-half years of my administration. The expertise that our law enforcers and soldiers, well, have gained from this is also similar to the expertise that our soldiers gained from the Balikatan exercises. In those exercises, our soldiers increased their capability to neutralize the top men and diminish the strength of the Abu Sayyaf. Armed with the skills and firepower to match the strength of our will, we notched several gains against terrorism since then. The latest of these have been the death of the terrorist Al-Ghozi; the raid on a Jemaah Islamiyah safehouse in Cotabato; and the arrest of Taufek, a ranking Jemaah Islamiyah operative. Most recently, we captured and deported Victor Moore Infante, an arms smuggler for the Abu Sayyaf, wanted in the United States. We are proud of our role in the fight against terrorism in this part of Asia. We are proud of our alliance with the U.S, and we are proud of our information and communication sharing alliance with Indonesia, Malaysia Cambodia, Brunei and Thailand, which was initiated by the Philippines. Recently, in APEC, we were given the charge of being the coordinator for maritime security in the Asia-Pacific region. We hosted the meeting on maritime cooperation, security cooperation, and soon we will also host several trilateral customs-immigration-quarantine security meetings to strengthen cooperation particularly in our southern islands. Through all these fight against terrorism, through all the wars our soldiers get into, peace remains our preferred option. And we thank the United States for supporting our peace initiatives in the south, including the recently initiated education projects, including the ongoing electrification projects coursed through USAID. And we also thank the United States government for the commitment to rehabilitate the areas of conflict when the peace talks shall have pushed through. To you, the group of 52, I expect your contribution to our anti terrorism, our anti-narcotics and to our positive peace efforts to be special in line with your special training. I expect you to form the nucleus of our maritime-based anti-terrorists and anti-narcotics operations. And i know that as you were especially chosen, you will especially do your work for the good of our country, its future, for a strong republic that is peaceful and prosperous -- free of drugs, free of terrorism -- where you and your children can enjoy the blessings of peace and prosperity. Mabuhay ang ating mga graduates ng ating special training course! Thank you. |