PRESIDENT BENIGNO S. AQUINO III’s SPEECH
DURING THE COURTESY CALL OF THE AMBASSADORS, CONSULS
GENERAL AND TOURISM DIRECTORS TOUR (ACGTDT) PHILIPPINE
COUNTRY TEAM IN CANADA ON THEIR “WINTER ESCAPADE:
“IT’S MORE FUN IN THE PHILIPPINES” ANNUAL TOUR
Rizal Ceremonial Hall, Malacañang
January 24, 2014
(applause) Thank you. Thank you.
Good morning. Please sit down.
Secretary Albert del Rosario, His Excellency Canadian Ambassador Neil Reeder
and Mrs. Reeder, Senator Tobias Enverga and Mrs. Enverga, Ambassador
Leslie Gatan, Undersecretary Ma. Theresa Martinez, Assistant Secretary Carlos
Sorreta, participants of the 2014 Winter Escapade, fellow workers in
government, honoured guests, mga minamahal ko pong kababayan:
Magandang umaga po sa inyong lahat.
Does anybody mind if I speak in Tagalog? Okey. Thank you. If you notice I had
the teleprompter removed. That means I didn’t like the speech that they
prepared today. I think it failed to convey a lot of the sentiments I want to
express and unfortunately, now I have to do it extemporaneously and I’m still
composing portions of it. (laughter)
Anyway, let me start out with marami hong problema ang bansa natin. Last
year ho talagang parang napakarami nung share naman natin sa problema. At
paminsan-minsan ho nagkakaron tayo ng—alam niyo ang Pilipino pag…
madali raw hong ngumiti, parang naghahanap ng pagpapatawa, hindi ba, para
kung anuman ang dinadaanan medyo mapagaanan ang ating pinagdadaanan.
So, alam naman ho niyo siguro “Text Capital” raw ang Pilipinas, at last week
ho may natanggap akong text. Baka nabalitaan na ninyo, meron ho tayong
kasalukuyang issue tungkol doon sa PDAF o Priority Development Assistance
Fund na kung saan diumano merong mga ilang myembro ng gobyerno ang
inabuso itong pondong ‘to at ibinulsa. Sa gitna po ng kontrobersyang ito ay
may isang aleng ang ngalan Mrs. Napoles. Ngayon ho ang pinadala sa aking
text ay ganito ang nakalagay: Yung ‘Maalaala Mo Kaya’ na programa ay
gagawin raw hong isang episode, buhay ni Mrs. Napoles. So natural ho
dumating yung mga scriptwriter ininterview si Mrs. Napoles at itinanong ng
iba’t-ibang detalye. Sa bawat tanong po nung mga scriptwriter ang sinasabi
raw ho ni Mrs. Napoles ay hindi ko maalala yan. (laughter) May tinanong na
ibang bagay, wala akong maalalang ganyan. (laughter) Pagkatapos ho ng lima o
anim na oras sa kaka-interview wala pa hong nasusulat yung scriptwriter,
1
hindi na po matutuloy raw yung episode ng Maalala Mo Kaya. (laughter) So,
ganda naman ho napatawa ko kayo maski papano. (laughter)
Naalala ko ho tuloy nung kami’y na-exile, nasa Boston, tatay ko ho napakahilig
manood ng news. Yung lahat ho ng istasyon kung kakayanin niya dinadaanan
niya yung news program—sa Boston po nung panahon na yun meron pang
isang istasyon na binobroadcast yung news in Spanish. So, yung inulit ho na
news in Spanish, pinapanood uli niya. At yung una kong karanasan sa Winter
po kasi ay nangyari nung mga panahong ito, at nung ako po’y talagang
giniginaw ng husto at shivering—yung bahay ho namin kasing tinitirahan sa
Boston ginawa 1929. Ngayon po yung insulation science ay tila iniisip pa lang
nung 1929—(laughter) so meron po yung tawag ho yata ring radiator. Pag
tinitignan ko—kako, display purposes lang pala ‘to. Baka hindi ho niyo na…
hindi man niyo tinatanong, nung ako po’y natutulog doon sabi nga, di ba, yung
suggestion multiple layers of clothing. (laughter) So syempre underwear, tapos
thermal underwear, tapos may jogging pants, may sweater, kung minsan ho
may down jacket sa loob ng sleeping bag na nasa ilalim ng blanket at
comforter. (laughter) At yung pag nakapasok na ho kayo sa inyong kama at
medyo mainit-init na at inutusan kayo parang hirap na hirap kayong (laughter)
uulitin yung buong proseso.
Anyway po, ang nagbibigay comfort sa akin nung panahon na yun ay tila yung
wind patterns at saka yung temperature na nagmumula sa Canada at pinainit
naman talaga po ninyo bago umabot sa Boston, kaya maraming salamat po sa
inyo nabawasan yung ating pinagdaanan doon. (laughter) Hindi ko po kasi
sukat akalain na dito po sa Malacañang eh matutuwa akong i-welcome ang
“escapees” (laughter) Kaya ho napalitan yung talumpati eh. Alam ho niyo pag
escapees kadalasan katabi ko si Secretary Leila de Lima ng Department of
Justice, (laughter) at pinupuri natin ang nakahuli.
Pero anyway po, let me get to some more serious matters. Typhoon Haiyan or
Yolanda was really bad, and it came on top of several crises—you had the
Zamboanga seige, you had the Bohol-Cebu earthquake, you had Santi in
between them before Yolanda struck, and then now you have Agaton. And
Agaton is the latest low pressure area that transformed itself into a tropical
depression that fortunately dissipated again into a low pressure area, and
hopefully will not reconfigure itself into a tropical depression.
The Philippines is visited by about 20 typhoons every year, and we have gone a
long way. For instance, when we started, we had the weather bureau that had
at its head somebody felt he was the best friend of God. And when he decided
where a typhoon track would follow, he expected this typhoon track to follow
his dictates. So, we were advised to prepare for the landfall in Aurora that point
in time, Northern Philippines, and it actually went to Southern Tagalog and
then Metro Manila. And I was in a residence in Quezon City at the time and I
was saying, this must be such a terrible typhoon because the winds were so…
2
whipping it up and so strong in Quezon City when it was supposed to be in
Aurora province. Lo and behold! it never went to Aurora province because there
it was very sunny and it actually as in a sense in the opposite track.
Now, we have a weather bureau who can accurately tell you precisely where it
will fall, what the wind strength will be, what the rainfall will be, but more
importantly, we have a Department of Science and Technology that is able to
translate all of these data and make our citizens even more prepared than what
we were. When we started out, when you say amount of rainfall expected,
they’ll give you a reading in millimeters and nobody really could understand it.
Now, we have a color coded scheme that tells you how much rain to expect and
this is coupled with geohazard mapping throughout the country that tells you
what to expect given certain conditions. And we expect to have more and more
inputs and more and more work done that will make all of our communities
resilient.
Let me talk about Yolanda. Yolanda affected 44 of our 81 provinces. It affected
about 20 percent of the population, and by affect or affected, we mean that
they really were severely affected. We have something like 918,000 families
needing assistance of some form or another just to recover shelter and of
course, the livelihood that’s involved. Now, if I may ask you to recall, this was
the last in a series of tragedies that befell us, both manmade and natural last
year. And government I admit is hard pressed to meet all of the needs, and I
had received so many text messages again and they were asking me how I was?
And I said, I’m okay. And you might wonder why would I be okay given such a
situation? I am okay because there really was overwhelming support not only
from our countrymen but more importantly from the International Community
and I have to praise Canada.
In my conversation with the Prime Minister, he mentioned that we do have a
significant Filipino-Canadian community, and the Filipino-Canadian
community prevailed upon the Canadian government to render its utmost
assistance in the tragedy that happened with Yolanda. So, previously, there
was warmth from the winter months; now, there is the warmth from the love
that you have bestowed and shown on our countrymen. And again, on their
behalf, I thank all of you for this really tremendous effort that enabled us to
overcome and continue to overcome the challenges besetting our country as we
try to recover, reconstruct, rehabilitate and build back better. Again, our
thanks to each and everyone of you. (applause)
To those of you who have not been back to the country in quite awhile, I think
you will notice that there are significant changes in our country today. I dare
say that when I step down by 2016, perhaps a lot of you will no longer
recognize the skyline that is of the National Capital Region as well as that of
Cebu and so many other areas. You will be pleasantly surprised by the
infrastructure that will be wrought on the country. Few days ago, we
3
inaugurated or we broke the ground for this project that will connect North
Luzon Expressway and the South Luzon Expressway, wherein you will be able
to bypass the torturous road called EDSA. Now, it is very significant and in a
sense we’re glad we’re starting it, we’re hoping that it will be completed by 2016
and this will be just one of two connecting roads that will again bypass EDSA.
What is important to note is when they envisioned this road I was still in the
elementary. Sometime in the 70s, the then Construction Development
Corporation, the Philippines was granted a franchise. It was given the North
Luzon Expressway built by government and in exchange they promised to bring
this road to Pangasinan in the North and Quezon in the South. Up to today,
about 40 years later, it still has to reach Pangasinan and it has to reach
Quezon. And I will not go into details as to why it took that long but the
bottomline is, that some people are already talking of trips from Manila to
Baguio in a three and a half hour to four-hour mode driving, shall we say, not
overspeeding.
Okey, now—airports. We have so many projects on line for our airports
primarily because we expect tourist arrivals which started at about three
million when I started into office to amount to about ten million foreign tourist
arrivals every year by 2016—and we’re at a halfway point. The domestic
tourism program has already breached the target for 2016 as early as 2011, so
that has necessitated practically doubling the targets by 2016—and I’m
confident that we will reach that.
We have gotten so many accolades from credit ratings agencies that have given
us investment grade status already as a country when we issue our bonds.
We have a country that is able again to come up with a werewithal with the
challenges that beset us one after the othe. And perhaps, it is a mark of the
confidence of the International Community that so many came to us because
they knew it would not amount… and it would not be wasted given the reforms
that we have tried to institute in the office.
You know, let me just give you an idea of one of the reforms that has enabled
us to get to where we are. The Department of Public Works and Highways used
to have the most corrupt image, if not one of them. Now, one of the processes
that they used to involve themselves in would be the need for people interested
in bidding for projects to submit a Letter of Intent to bid. This letter in turn
would produce a list of people intending to bid for particular projects. What
that facilitated was collusion amongst the contractors to know who their
competitors were, reach out to them, come up to a deal and defeat the purpose
of competitive bidding. Secretary Singson, when he came into office, innovated
by removing that requirement—and what is the result? There is an underpass
now connecting Quezon Ave… the intersection of Quezon Avenue and Araneta
Avenue. When we got into office there was a budgeted amount of about 690
4
million pesos for the said project. When we actually came up with our own
estimate it got reduce to about 503 or so. When we actually bidded it out, it
became 430 million pesos instead of 690, and we brought it in—if I remember
correctly—about a hundred days ahead of schedule. So we got something that
we needed—better, at the right quality, at the right price, and at an earlier
point in time. (applause)
I had a battlecry during the campaign of “Kung walang corrupt, walang
mahirap.” And what does that mean? We want growth that is inclusive, and
how are we tackling this growth? I’ll give you an example. We do invest the vast
majority of our budget in education, and one of the components is TESDA or
the TechVoc sector. Previously, it used to hit about 26 percent placement rate
for its graduates. Currently, the average is 62 percent, and this has been done
by tailoring their programs to the needs of our various industries and
businesses. In certain sectors within this TechVoc sector it can reach up to 85
percent placement rates.
Now, what is the end result? Over half a million Filipinos in our three years,
about 560,000 actually or thereabouts, have been brought through the process
and again at least 62 percent of this 500 plus thousand Filipinos have found
meaningful work.
Another program that we are proud of is called, in Tagalog it’s called Pantawid
Pamilya Pilipino Program. It’s called the Conditional Cash Transfer Program in
English, and the only requirement is keep your children in school and you will
receive a stipend from government. This has about 4.3 million families already
by now targeting the bottom quintile of our population. This year, we will
expand the program to cover students in the high school arena. There is a
recent study that says, graduating from high school brings a premium of 40
percent in your income-earning capabilities over that of elementary school
graduates. The school backlog program of 66,800 classrooms that we needed
when we started has been completed by the end of 2013 and Brother Armin
Luistro of DepEd managed to produce not 66,800 but he was so proud to
report to me that they produced 66,813. Hopefully in this case, the 13 extra
happening in 2013 will be the hallmark of what to expect—you will get more
and more from this government and its good governance.
So, my friends, I don’t want to talk too long. But I guess, what I really just want
to say is like a lot of Filipinos and I guess, you when you left our shores you
looked at the future in a country and said, the future doesn’t look that bright.
And I have always wondered and perhaps, most especially when we were living
in exile, the country is so blessed—we are blessed with natural resources, we’re
blessed with location, we’re blessed with the people so resilient and so talented
and so creative. And one had to ask and wonder why can’t we make that good
future here? Why does a Filipino wanting a good future have to go abroad, be
5
separated from family and really pick up their roots with all the hardships that
that entails.
And I am here to tell you that this is changing in our three and a half years of
governance, you will see a transformation in the attitude of our people—a “can
do” attitude that perhaps manifested itself most clearly during the recent
Yolanda episode.
When I was asked, how are you? And I kept replying, I’m okay. And perhaps, I
should have expounded—I’m okay, because the people I serve really bring me
so much honor and so much pleasure, and that given any tragedy they really
can pick themselves up, sometimes literally the day after, and proceed to
reconstruct and rehabilitate their own lives instead of dwelling on their
misfortune.
People will have so many challenges but will never be bound but instead
always exhibit the fight so typical of our race and our countrymen.
So, my friends, I’d like to welcome you again, retracing your roots, showing
perhaps that your efforts towards alleviating the plight of our countrymen has
not been in vain, and perhaps with a little amount of pride, hopefully, your stay
here will truly be more fun because you have seen a Philippines transformed.
Thank you. Good day! (applause)
*
*
6
*