APPROPRIATE REMARKS?
I must confess that the same invigorating sense of pride ande unparalleld pleasure which I felt more than a year ago when I was asked to speak before your organization in my capacity as the AFP Chief of Staff, once more engulf my spirit to be once again in the midst of the highly esteemed members of no less than the first and largest Rotary Club in Asia - The Rotary Club of Manila - is truly a great privilege and honor for me.
My spirit is awed by the formidable assemblage of accomplished and extraordinary individuals that fill this room today - individuals who are recognized for their wholehearted and enduring capacity to care, give and serve. Professionals who take great pride in being a part of the patriotic enterprise of ?Service Above Self? and ?Making Mankind their Business.?
Since its inception in 1919, the Rotary Club OF Manila has remained to be among the most credible, reliable and invaluable partners of the Government in the task of nation building. You have made a significant and hefty contribution in the pursuit of genuine progress and development for our country and people.
I am convinced that you truly take to heart and continue to live up to your mission of being ?An association of business and professional individuals united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, advocate high ethical standards in all vocations, and help promote understanding, goodwill and peace in the world.?
Your firm commitment to your noble objective is affirmed by the numerous worthwhile projects you undertake. Among these are:
The various Medico-Surgical Outreach Missions, the latest being the ?Joint Humanitarian Assistance Mission in Basilan? in partnership with the AFP RESCOM; your educational and youth development programs such as the ?Sagip Kabataan Project?; your environmental protection advocacies; and other community building initiatives such as the ?TOWER Awards? and the ?Buy a Bread, Save a Life Project.?
The Italian patriot, GIUSSEPPE MAZZINI once said and I quote:
?The moral law of the universe is progress. Every generation that passes idly over the earth without adding to that progress remains uninscribed upon the registry of humanity, and the succeeding generation tramples its ashes to dust.? Unquote.
I can certainly say that the members of the Rotary Club of Manila never ?passed idly across the earth.?
You have proven to be a sterling exemplar of willingness and readiness to ?Act and Serve.?
It heartens me to know just how much parallelism occurs between the Rotary Club of Manila and the Department of National Defense. We have common goals and we stand by the same principles. Both our organizations render service to our country and people and this orientation serves as the common bond between the Rotary and the DND.
Rotary acknowledges its role in the field of socio-civic work. The DND, on the other hand, is responsible for national defense and security. Our two organizations generally share the task of securing the benefit and welfare of our people. We are both intent on working towards the betterment of our nation - whether it is our economy, national governance, or in any other concern.
Another source of our affinity stems from the fact that in the course of our job of ensuring national security, we also let ourselves be guided by your 4-Way Test.
This principle truly serves us well because in an organization like your Department of National Defense, there is no room for guessing, wantonness or ignorance.
The task of protecting the sovereignty of the nation and securing the lives of the people is crucial. It requires careful and logical thinking, extensive planning, good judgement and reliable foresight. Indeed, we cannot afford fatal complacency, more so in these challenging and uncertain times.
It was Mikhail Gorbachev who once said that:
?It would be naive to think that the problems plaguing mankind today can be solved with the means and methods which were applied or seemed to work in the past.?
The multifarous development and occurances in our security environment necessitate a responsive defense policy and strategy.
The clear and present danger brought about by insurgency, transnational crime and terrorism call for the necessary doctrine, strategy education training and equipment of our armed forces for it to effectively respond to the imperatives and challenges of defense and security.
In this vein, I am happy to inform you that among the numerous activities that the Department of National Defense and the AFP has lined up in order to improve our Philippine defense capability is a joint military training exercise between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and its U.S. counterpart.
Dubbed as BALIKATAN 02-1, this activity focuses on the devellopment of skills, techniques and strategies for countering terrorism. And because it aims to come up with a realistic training, it will be conducted in Mindanao, specifically in the provinces of Zamboanga and Basilan - the heart of our domestic terrorism problems.
Through BALIKATAN, the Philippine troops will have the opportunity to learn effective military doctrines, tactic, techniques and procedures that be applied to our security concerns.
Our soldiers will also be exposed to various high-technology equipment for a hands-on evaluation of the most useful and necessary military devices.
This military endeavor, no doubt, will greatly benefit and enhance our defense and security capability.
Thus, more prospects for similar military and defense cooperation are being planned as the Department of National Defense pursues it?s vision of ?A modern technology-driven national defense force in the 21st century capable of providing a secure and stable internal and security environment.?
However, let us remember that the security and defense of our nation and our people is not something that we, in your Department of National Defense can achieve on our own.
Security and defense is a serious concern which requires the participation of every sector of the society.
It is said that: ?The stability of a nation lies not in the hands of the high and mighty... But in the collective power of many hands holding high the ideals of its society, pulling together the sinews of its past and present - to give its people strength and wisdom for the future.?
Indeed, the security of our nation relies upon the collective will and energy of its people to preserve and maintain it.
Everyone of us here this afternoon has specific duties and responsibilities in our various professions. We come from the different spheres of the society. We each specialize in our own turf. But we are also delegated with an even nobler and more challenging task of cultivating greater peace, progress and security in our nation.
As leaders of various fields of expertise, I call upon the distringuished Rotarians to make this vision a reality. But this is simply not possible if we no longer have faith in our institutions.
This loss of faih in our ability to change
This loss of faith in our ability to change our society for the better has, I am afraid, very serious implications. It implies a loss of faith in the institutions essential to a just society.
Many of you may have first-hand experience with people who no longer report crimes because they believe that ?Wala naman mangyayari diyan.? Many of you have first-hand experience with people who do not pay the right taxes because of their perception that ?Winawaldas lang naman ng mga tao sa Gobyerno yung pera natin.? Many of you, I am sure, know people who chose to take ?procedural shortcuts? because of their belief that Government bureaucracies are there to block you, not help you.
It may be easy to denigrate and disparage our government -- but we should not overlook the fact that government is made up of public servants, many of whom are genuinely trying to reform those institutions, and direct them, if they are misdirected, once more to the objective for which they were set up in the first place: to best serve the people.
This is what I would like to communicate with you. There are still many community-minded public servants trying to perform to the best of their abilities to serve the public interest. Many of these, are soldiers - risking their lives - to secure the nation for our children and their children.
They may not always succeed, they may make mistakes in judgment or errors in execution, but such failures, when they occur, are not, I assure you, from an absence of the right intentions.
This is where we need your help. Those of you who are here today -- are leaders of their communities and persons of influence in our society. We need you to communicate to those who look up to you that not everyone in this government is a crook.
We need you to tell anyone who will listen that security must always be a community effort. We need you to convince your friends and associates that they must link up and join hands with those in the public sector who may be trying to reform and improve the institutions where they work. Without the active cooperation and support of you in the private sector of society, these well-intentioned public servants cannot succeed. But with your support, they have a chance.
It may be good for us all to recall what the 18th century political philosopher Edmund Burke once said, ?All it needs for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.?
It is easy to throw in the towel... say that it?s hopeless... give up the fight. But I am convinced that our country is not hopeless and that we are only beginning to realize the enormous potentials of our country and people.
Once, when we were young, we believed that we could make a difference, that we can change this world for the better. We must continue to believe so.
We should bear in mind that change requires a concentrated and sustained effort. For our goals and aspirations to succeed, we must have focus, consistency, and persistence.
Let us heed the wise and inspring words of former U.S. President Calvin Coolidge who once said and I quote: ?Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ?Press On? has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.?
At the end of the day, I do not want it to be said of our generation what a now forgotten Roman said of his:
?Tempora Mutantur et Homines Deteriorantur? (Times change and men deteriorate).
The clarion call to stand up and be counted is loud and clear. And I am confident that every Rotarian in this room will respond to the challenge with the determination and professionalism that marks every member of the Rotary organization worldwide.
Friends, thank you for inviting me this afternoon. It was a great pleasure sharing my thoughts, my feelings and my aspirations to all of you. And as my talk comes to a close, let me leave this message with you:
My dear Rotarians, we must Keep the Faith! We must Keep Leading the Way!
Thank you very much and good day! |