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Thank you, Secretary Teodoro.
Troop Commander, give “tikas pahinga.”
His Excellency President Ramos and the other former Chiefs-of-Staff of the
Armed Forces; General Yano and the other officers of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines; Archbishop Tumulak and our other friends of the Armed Forces
from the civilian sector; members of the Diplomatic Corps; the family of 2nd
Lt. Gutleng and the family of the other soldiers who gave their lives in
defense of our nation; Sergeant Villar and the other combatants who have
been awarded for their heroism during this past year; CAFGU Cabarles at yung
ibang mga nasugatan maging sundalo o CAFGU doon sa mga panahon kung
kinailangan sugpuin ang ating bansa; Don Emilio Yap and our other civilian
awardees, thank you for your support to our soldiers; General Rommel Gomez
and the other officers who have received awards for your exemplary
leadership of our combat troops; our Presidential citation recipients,
congratulations also for your distinguished service in your last
assignments!
Men and women of the Armed Forces, Happy Anniversary to us all!
Another year marks the gallanty of the Filipino soldier performing the duty
to advance peace, freedom, development and human security.
Ang ating mga sundalong inaasahan ng mamamayang Pilipino upang itigil ang
pananakot ng mga terorista at ang panggugulo ng mga rebeldeng komunista, at
upang dalhin ang kapayapaan sa Mindanao. The communist guerilla fronts have
dropped to 63 from 107 in 2005. This year alone, our troops neutralized 15
of the most notorious communist insurgents, 58 Abu Sayyaf and Al Khobar
operations and three foreign terrorists. Congratulations to all our
soldiers!
And we congratulate our incumbent officers among the medalist of valor
because by their leadership they had inspired many of these acts of valor in
the battlefield. Mga sundalo rin ang una nating tinatawag tuwing may sakuna
dahil sa bagyo, baha, at iba pang kalamidad. Noong na-trap yung mga maliliit
na minero doon sa Benguet kaya meron tayong awardee mula doon sa
pangyayaring yuon. Noong lumubog ang barkong Princess of the Stars sa
Romblon. Noong kasagsagan ng bagyong Frank. Noong nagkaroon ng typhoid
outbreak sa ilang bayan ng Quezon province at pati na rin sa pag-aayos ng
mga kalsada, tulay at eskwelahan. At sa pagtulong sa mga pamilyang apektado
ng bagyo’t mga kaguluhan sa Mindanao. Salamat sa lahat ng ating mga sundalo.
I will give my command guidance during our command conference on January
8th. For today, we focus on aspirations rather than orders. Peace is the
only path for Mindanao and the nation. I was so glad to hear Genral Yano
saying that our soldiers are not really fond of fighting, they want to have
peace because war is never the final answer. We are committed to peace and
restarting the peace process. And in order to do that, we count on our Armed
Forces to bring stability to the island, to regain order, to bring the
lawless renegade elements to justice. This is the way we can be confident
that responsible elements regain control of the MILF so that we can
effectively reactivate the peace process again in earnest. The peace process
must proceed. And we are assembling the pieces to get the peace process
started again in a way that upholds our commitment to peace, to the strong
sentiments of the communities, and to the rule of law.
The key to resolving peace in Mindanao is for all sides to be committed to
peace, progress and prosperity. This includes reaching out to all sides and
hearing the voices in the communities. We must all be willing to put
ourselves in each other’s shoes and understand various points of views and
be willing to give and take to bring permanent peace to the island. And that
is the way that we can promote democracy and a strong republic.
We always support efforts to strengthen democracy. But we are not focused on
politics. And I thank General Yano, and I congratulate the Armed Forces,
that as General Yano says, “the enemy has been slain, the enemy that is
called politics in the Armed Forces.” Congratulations for that!
Our priority is implementing the pro-poor and economic reform agendas that
have given our country the strongest and most resilient economy in decades.
This is a time when our nation’s leaderhip must give all its attention to
managing the impact of the global crisis so that it does not become a
Philippine crisis. The national leadership’s attention must not be on
politics but on the economy with our soldiers taking care of security in the
background.
There is indeed a global economic crisis, but fortunately through a mix of
careful planning, economic reforms and the hard work of many people, we have
thus far prevented the global crisis from becoming a Philippine crisis
Two-thirds of the globe is now in recession, but not the Philippines, which
is growing 4.6 percent after growing 7.2 percent last year. The Bank of New
York Mellon says, “The Philippines is inherently strong, a potential
beneficiary of the financial woes.”
JP Morgan says, “The Philippines is in a relatively strong position to
weather the global downturn with the economy driven by private consumption
and services, which are less vulnerable to external shocks.”
Congratulations to all the Filipino people!
The fact that we have avoided the crisis that is plaguing the rest of the
world is a testament to the tough choices we made several years ago.
Economic reform has been at the center of my presidency. It is because we
took the politically unpopular decision to raise unprecedented new revenue
that we have been able to generate additional resources and invest in
physical and human infrastructure: roads, bridges and ports -- many of which
were built by our soliders; expanded access to healthcare, including
improved military hospitals; education and social services, including more
housing for our soldiers and their families. And on top of all these the
upgrading of our defense capabilities, including new helicopters, Squad
Automatic Weapons, inflatable boats and other facilities and equipment.
Upgrading will continue, particularly in training. We will make the
Philippine Defense Reform work to stop the insurgency by 2010.
Kasama sa Philippine Defense Reform, at bilang pasasalamat sa kabayanihan ng
AFP, noong isang taon, sa inyong hiling, dinagdagan ang subsistence pay at
dinoble ang hazard pay ng ating mga sundalo. At itong taon dinagdagan naman
ang inyong base pay.
Ito ay maliit na paraan kung papano ipaabot sa inyo ang napakalaking
pasasalamat ng taong-bayang Pilipino. Itong ating pagdiriwang ng Armed
Forces Day ay laging ginagawa ilang araw lang bago Pasko. Kaya sa Paskong
ito, let us all count our blessings and look to the future with greater
hope, confidence and optimism. At dahil sa napakagandang paglilingkod ng
ating kawal Pilipino, inaasahan natin na maging lalong mapayapa itong
darating na Pasko at lalong maging makabuluhan ang lahat nang ginagawa ng
ating kawal Pilipino para sa taong-bayan.
To all of you once again, Happy Anniversary! Merry Christmas! and thank you.
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