Her Excellency Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
President, Republic of the Philippines

State of the Nation Address at the Opening of the 1st Regular Session of the 12th Congress, House of Representatives, Batasang Pambansa, Quezon City
July 23, 2001

Thank you.

His excellency President Ramos; Senate President Drilon and the other senators, speaker De Venecia and the other congressmen and congresswomen, the justices of the supreme court, the members of the diplomatic corps, mga maralitang tagalungsod na nonood ngayon sa video wall at sa TV; mga maraming nakikinig sa radyo; mahal kong kababayan:

Kamakailan, may sumulat sa aking tatlong batang taga-Payatas, sina Jayson, Jomar at Erwin. Ginawa nilang paper boats ang liham at pinalutang sa Pasig River patungo sa Malacañang.

Ito ang sinulat ng sampung taong gulang na si Jomar pabalan: "sana po ay mabigyan ng permanenteng trabaho ang tatay ko para hindi siya mahirapan."
Sabi naman ni Jason Vann Banogan, sampung taong gulang: "sana po matulungan ninyo ako na makatapos sa pag-aaral ko hanggang kolehiyo, kasi po ang nagpapaaral sa akin ay ang lola ko lamang."

At ang tanging nais ni Erwin Dolera, walong taong gulang; ipasara ang Payatas dumpsite, at bigyan ng lupa ang kanyang pamilya.
Napakalinaw, napakasimple ang hiling ng mga anak ng Payatas: trabaho, edukasyon. Sariling tahanan. Idagdag na rin pagkain sa bawat mesa. Ito ang mithiin ng masa.

And this, in common sense and plain talk, is the core of my vision.
A vision for the future must be rooted in the past.

A revolution gave birth to the first Republic in Asia, A sense of nationhood was born but also the dream of a better life for all Filipinos. Andres Bonifacio, the poor man, the great plebeian who started this revolution, nurtured this dream.

In 1963, another poor man rose. He rose to the most powerful position in the land and risked everything to fulfill the poor man's dream.

Inspired by the great plebeian, my father, President Diosdado Macapagal, promulgated the land reform law to emancipate the peasant from a feudal bondage to the soil.

In 1986 Filipinos peacefully reclaimed their civil liberties in the people power revolution. Under the leadership of Corazon Aquino, we reaffirmed our commitment to freedom and democracy on a mere stretch of highway --with hardly a drop of bloodshed or a shot fired in anger.

Six months ago, on that same highway, people rose up to restore morality as the first institution of society and as the animating principle of justice and the rule of law.
Thus, we see, the historic pillars of a national vision: prosperity, freedom, justice.
Ito ang mga layuning ipinaglaban ng bayan mula nang ito'y isilang: kasaganaan, kalayaan, katarungan.

We also see in our great history a progressive advancement towards the ultimate goal to transfer power over the state from the traditional economic and political bosses to the people.

Last may one, the poor raised their voices in anger and their fists in fury. Imprisoned in poverty, shackled to shame, denied justice in society, they personally delivered the message that, 100 years after they revolted to establish this nation, they had yet to partake of the national dream.

Dinig na dinig ko ang pahayag nila, at napakumbaba ako. Hindi ba't nasa balikat ko ang tungkuling mamuno sa pakikibaka laban sa salot ng kahirapan? Ako na siyang anak ng tinawag na "poor boy from Lubao"?

I take this duty upon my shoulders.

I do so without fear or foreboding of failure.

For I know that the; greatest obstacle we as a nation must overcome is inside us. The enemy to beat is ourselves: when we spread division rather than unity; when we put ourselves above country and profit above fairness when we think the worst of those with whom we should be working for the common good, and when we wallow in despair rather than rise to achievement --indeed, when we make politics replace patriot1sm in our country's hour of need.

Let us, here in the home of democracy, therefore resolve, to grab hold of this enemy within, and beat him.

The internal enemy engaged, the battle will not be easy. We inherited very difficult problems.

From 2.5 million jobless four years ago, unemployment now stands at four million. From a budget surplus in 1997 under President Ramos of more than a billion pesos, my government inherited a deficit exceeding 140 billion pesos. In the same period, poverty incidence rose from 36.8 percent of the population in 1997 to 40 percent in the year 2004.

And, unlike the situation in 1997 when a battered Asia could still lean on the strength of the advanced economies, today our main trading partners like Japan and America are slowing down as well.

But we will prevail. We will prevail because the mainstream of our nation is united.
In the May elections, this administration received a solid mandate to carry on with the business of governance and reform.

I do not view this mandate as a choice between personalities of this administration and those of the opposition.

I see it rather as a vote for all of us --administration and opposition --to roll up our sleeves, stop looking back, and move forward, most especially in the fight against mass poverty.

Hinalal tayo upang labanan ang kahirapan, hindi ang isa't-isa.

Our challenge is clear: sugpuin ang kahirapan.

In this spirit. I appeal to everyone here today to undertake something unconventional but much to be desired in these especially hard times.

From today. Let us set aside bickering and politicking for at least one year. We may congratulate ourselves on our forbearance at the next state of the nation address.
Sa halip na alitan, isang taon tayong magtulungan sa ikabubuti ng taong bayan.
This is our duty. This is our mandate. This is our mission.

Unity for the country's recovery will set the stage for the national mobilization needed to undertake the great and difficult tasks ahead.

What are these tasks?

When I became president last January, I told the people about my vision of winning the war against poverty within the decade.

To succeed, the template of our national agenda must revolve around four components --apat na elemento ng pakikibaka sa kahirapan.

The first is an economic philosophy of free enterprise appropriate to the 21st century. Pagnenegosyo upang dumami ang trabaho. Not a pitiless free-for-all but free enterprise with a social conscience.

The second component is a modernized agricultural sector founded on social equity. Palalaguin ang kita at ani ng maralitang tagabukid.

The third component is a social bias toward the disadvantaged to balance our economic development plan. Pagkalinga sa mga bahagi ng lipunan na naiiwanan ng kaunlaran.

And the fourth component is to raise the moral standards of government and society. Moralidad sa gobyerno at lipunan bilang saligan ng tunay na kaunlaran .
Pagnenegosyo, pagpapaunlad ng agrikultura, kalinga sa nagigipit na sektor, at moralidad sa gobyerno at lipunan --ito ang mga sandata natin sa digmaang-bayan laban sa kahirapan.

I have therefore organized my interpretation of the state of the nation along these four components of our national anti-poverty ideology.

The first is an economic philosophy for the 21st century. Under this philosophy, the way to fight poverty is to create jobs, not destroy them.

To create jobs, we will attract investments. To attract investments, we will attend to macro measures and concerns. .

In addressing macro concerns, we will focus on long-term structural issues. We starred with the reform of the power sector, and I congratulate those of you who were in the previous congress for this accomplishment. Now, we will turn to other basics like infrastructure, productivity, and the savings rate.

In focusing on infrastructure, we will harness the private sector via the Build-Operate-and-Transfer law. Our priorities include telecommunications facilities for high-speed productivity at low cost, roads to target tourist destinations, infrastructure for the modernization of agriculture, mass transport infrastructure for Metro Manila, and commuter and transport systems to disperse communities towards Subic, Clark and Calabarzon.

We will minimize bottlenecks to productivity, such as the high cost of power, deterrents to investments in agriculture, overly confrontational labor-management relations, and corruption and red tape at the national and local government levels.
To reduce the cost of power, we will begin implementing the power sector reform law which the previous congress just passed.

To reduce deterrents to investments in agriculture, I ask congress to enact a law making farm land acceptable as loan collateral.

To reduce excessive friction in labor and management relations, we will go the extra mile to work for industrial peace, and to work with labor and business to retrain workers for the fast -changing technologies of the new economy.

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