President Benigno S. Aquino lll's Speech during the Book Launching of "Noynoy: Triumph of a People's Campaign" by Ambassador Wilfredo V. Villacorta
Powerbooks, Greenbelt 4, Makati City
21 Feb 2011
 
Thank you. Please sit down.

I wasn’t supposed to speak at this event. I’m supposed to speak at the next event. The Executive Secretary is presently talking with Butch Abad, we’re drafting a message for… we have a spat with Taiwan presently. And when Senator Roxas has graciously agreed to be my representative to try and settle that problem they’re drafting a message that we will be transmitting to the Taiwanese officials.

Well, looking at the cover I was wondering, do I have a worse picture than this? Then, I assumed I wasn’t gonna be asked to speak because I might comment on the picture. But then again I’m a person with no pretenses, I accept God’s gifts  be they totally positive or sometimes a little not positive. But I guess that should be the case, this is really to me, what has strengthened me throughout the campaign and which actually strengthens me on the daily grind. I’ve been accused of being a leisurely President, and you know some of these critics, I really would want to invite to tackle one of my days. 'Coz I live as you know in Pangarap, I tend to have a whole series of meetings, various courtesy calls, various discussions then, of course, there are about five one-foot folders na papers that are all briefs by the way that have to be attended to at which point when I finish I really make it a point to try and finish all the matters on my desk. I want a clean desk when I leave.

So, I transfer to Pangarap, which is about a five or six-minute travel from the Palace and when I get there there’s a new set of documents that need my attention. And I've asked my staff, when I just left here we finished everything, why is it that you treat the residence as the extension office? And I guess, that’s part and parcel of it, we really have to take care of so many things.

Earlier, this should be a… I haven't read the book, so it should be a reminder of our promises. I’m hoping that I haven’t been neglectful of the promises that I have enunciated during the campaign, during my various positions that I have held in government. My father did stress the importance of keeping to one’s words and I have endeavored to do so. I will submit that we have not finished the work. There really is a lot to do.

When I was being asked to run, I did say there were people who came up to me and approached me and said, we know you will not be able to change our country from black to white. Perhaps, as my father would put it, our mission is to make it grey, the grey which is the in between step, lighter and lighter in shade until we get to the white. And we will be there with you. And so when I accepted the challenge of running first and then running this country, running for the campaign and then running this country. In the back of my mind, I was I accepting on behalf of all of the people who egged me to run. Therefore, those of you who are absent and not helping us, I hope my parents visit you one of these days.

But seriously, there really is a lot of good news, and can I just highlight? We’ve talked about the economic numbers, they’re coming, they keep on coming. Perhaps there's even a worry there might be too much capital coming in that might lead to inflationary pulls on the economy. But that is also being addressed.

Let me talk about the simpler things. We have a problem with dengue. Dengue is now a year round phenomenon instead of a seasonal event. There are four varieties of dengue. And surprisingly our Department of Science and Technology came up with the solution that is a really a solution and not merely show. What is show? Show is when you start spraying pesticides that actually don’t kill… insecticides rather that don't kill the insects, they just push them to the neighboring barangay. The solution of DOST, I think, is more correct, doable, cheap and more effective. So, what does it entail? Basically, it entails a can, the can has a piece of black wood either painted or burned black. And there’s a solution within the can that kills the eggs that are born by the mosquitoes, so it’s a mosquito trap.

Okay. Previously, they tried various mosquito traps, unfortunately, they forgot where they put the traps. So the solutions became mosquito larvae incubators, but this time around we have a very good secretary in the Department of Science and Technology. It is very easy to replicate, so it’s very cost effective and it really does address solving the problem of dengue instead of just having all of the shows of fumigation that doesn’t do anything.

He is also embarking, they’re already on field test of a water purification system. There’s a very sizeable number of our population that does not have access to potable water. And the solution is basically a base. The base has micropores holes that are smaller than the typical sizes of viruses and bacteria. So, they can pass through, the water then is free of the various viruses and bacteria, they have clean water at the end of it. So, it's undergoing field test.

And I understand they’re also… they will be rolling out by June a locally produced light rail system which will save us about 80percent of the cost because as you know part of the PPP Program is mass transportation towards Bulacan, Antipolo, Cavite, amongst others. Then, of course, there’s already a request from Cebu and the others rail system in Mindanao.

Anyway, that’s the problem when I don’t have a prepared speech. I tend to speak a lot longer. Can I just say this, 25 years ago, we were at EDSA, nobody envisioned that that would be the resolution of the dictatorship. People like I would have thought that a bloody revolution would have been a necessary step to overcome the dictatorship, but we did have the peaceful revolution.

We did have an opportunity wherein strangers who were side by side risked everything if only to better the situation not of oneself but perhaps even for those who were not yet born who finally stood up and said, either we take responsibility now or forever be condemned to this situation.

My mother throughout the last years of her life had one theme:
“EDSA is not four days of EDSA. EDSA should be a daily thing.”

When we start thinking of our brother or our sister – 'coz there are a lot of feminists in the audience – the minute our focus is on the other that is the concrete way of uplifting everybody including ourselves. The minute we stick back to what was the current mode of behavior in the past dispensation of thinking of oneself only then that brings us lower and lower in the spiral of poverty.

So, I go back. When we see a vehicle polluting the atmosphere, do we say, wala akong pakialam dyan or do we take cognizance of the fact that I saw the problem, therefore, I should be part of the solution. When there is a community that does not have a regular classroom for that matter, we have an excess in our funds, should we not help them out, should we not have an addition, perhaps, an honoraria to the teachers that will help us teach the citizenry. Whenever we’re confronted with a problem, the only solution really is, if you’ll see a problem and you choose to emulate the three monkeys who saw nothing, said nothing and heard nothing, then nothing will change.

But I’m really glad to report to you that daily we get so much good news -- of course, I don’t get it normally from the media -- but just yesterday, I was talking to this group of people who are in an industry that has to deal with the sugar industry and their sources tell us that they’re experiencing something like 300 percent increase in revenues for the sugar industry. And they’re so bullish about the prospects that, again, there’s a built in incentive to mean even more efficient to plant more which makes us more food secure amongst other things.

I was reading a columnist today and it seemed that there were so many businessmen complaining. On the other hand, when I talk about… when I do get to meet businessmen both foreign and local all they’re saying are the bullishness of their prospects for our country if not the expansion of their activities that are already quite huge. So, if we have failings, I’m sure we’re human, we perhaps one of our biggest failings is perhaps an inability to really triumph our achievements. You know, in Tagalog, it says it very well -- nagtataas ng sariling bangko. Talagang kasalanan po sa amin yung purihin yung sarili. Problema nito yung purihin yung sarili means fine line between educating the people. And in the coming days and weeks we really want yung for everybody to have a tangible sense of where all of the things that which 25 years ago last year has brought us to. And even at this point in time, we are transforming already society.

We have a lot of, well, not really that much, but there is at least perhaps three percent of the population that does not want us to succeed. Who would want us to revert back to a situation where there is in effect a ruling elite whose interest are the only interest that matter. We have trampled upon so many rightfuls in changing our society. Therefore, there are people who lorded it over us for such a long time who are dead set on making me fail, but I am confident with the people behind me, nothing is impossible.

Thank you. Good evening.

[HOME]