Inaugural Address

of

His Excellency Diosdado Macapagal

[Delivered at the Quirino Grandstand, Manila, December 30, 1961]

Excerpts.

On this day, December 30, our national hero Jose Rizal gave his life on this hallowed
ground – the ideal manifestation of love of country and dedication to the service of
our people. It was therefore fitting that the framers of our Constitution should decree
that the highest official of the land shall be called upon to assume office on this
historical occasion. With deep humility, I accept the Nation’s call to duty.

Bound by the oath I have just taken, I am resolved that I shall be the President not
only of the members of my party but of all political groups; I shall be President not
only of the rich but more so of the poor; and I shall be President not only of one
sector but of all the people.

The primary function of the President is not to dispense favors but to dispense
justice. The presidential oath of office contains the special pledge to “do justice to
every man.” These shall not remain empty words, for with God’s help, I shall do
justice to every citizen, no matter how exalted or how humble may be his station in
life.

As we open a new era in the life of our Nation, let us measure the tasks before us
and set forth our goals. Our aims are two-fold: first, to solve the immediate problems
of the present and, second, to build materially and spiritually for the future.

Our first mission is the solution of the problem of corruption. We assume leadership
at a time when our Nation is in the throes of a moral degeneration unprecedented in
our national history. Never within the span of human memory has graft permeated
every level of government. The solution of this problem shall call for the exercise of
the tremendous persuasive power of the Presidency. I shall consider it, therefore, my
duty to set a personal example in honesty and uprightness. We must prove that ours
is not a Nation of hopeless grafters but a race of good and decent men and women.

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The basic national problem is the poverty of the masses. Our third mission, therefore,
is the creation of conditions that will provide more income for our people – income
for those who have none and more income for those whose earnings are inadequate
for their elemental needs. Millions of our people are unemployed and millions more
are unemployed and millions more are under-employed. We must rectify this
situation to help our people attain a higher level of living and create the domestic
buying power that can help generate prosperity. Unless solved in time, this problem
will worsen to the point of disaster in view of our population explosion.

The permanent solution to this problem is the rapid and sound utilization of our vast
and rich natural resources in order to create opportunities for employment. We
believe that the effective accomplishment of this task should be left to the citizens
themselves, that is, to private enterprise. But the Government can and should help.
Our Administration shall extend this help. Within the maximum financial capacity
of the Government, we shall initiate and carry out a program to help solve
unemployment and underemployment through massive productive and
labor-intensive projects calculated to create multiple job opportunities while at the
same time increasing the production, productivity and wealth of the land.

It is incorrect to say that we are out to solve all the problems of the Nation. No
President can do that. Nation-building is an exacting and endless endeavor. No
President can build the whole edifice of a nation. All that he is called upon to do, is
to add a fine stone to that edifice, so that those who shall come after him may add
other fine stones that will go for a strong and enduring structure. I stress anew that
stone that we are assigned to contribute to the edifice of a greater Philippines is, first,
to attend to such short-range problems as sufficiency in the staple food of the people,
and more employment, and second, to undertake a long-range task of moral
renaissance and the implementation of a socio-economic blueprint which, although
not immediately achieving prosperity, will lead to that prosperity for all our people.

I believe that this is a mission formidable enough for any President. It is an endeavor
that calls for the utmost use of sound judgment, energy and, above all, patriotism,
which is demanded of all of us. It addresses itself to the leaders the three great
branches of our Government. It requires, on the part of all, a transfiguration of
attitude from political partisanship to statesmanship. In the deliberations of Congress
on the proclamation of the President and the Vice-President, the leaders and
members of Congress demonstrated their capacity to rise above partisan politics and
proved themselves equal to the challenge of patriotism. I express the hope that this
congressional performance was not a mere involuntary recognition of an undeniable
political fact but a willful recognition of the need of setting aside political
partisanship in this time of national crisis in the interest of bipartisan collaboration
in the common task of providing, in the least time possible, a life of decency and
prosperity for our people.

Above all, this mission requires the support of our people. No program can succeed
without popular sustenance. We shall need that faith and that support demonstrated
by our people in our election against appalling odds. The beneficent effects of some
of the concrete steps that we shall take may not be immediately evident; what may,
in fact, be instantly visible will be adverse but transitory repercussions that in time
will clear the way for the final and favorable outcome. In those interludes of anxiety,
we shall need the full trust and confidence of our people, and we assure now that we
shall deserve that trust and confidence because in all our actions we shall never
deviate from the course of integrity, sincerity, and devotion to the welfare of the
Nation.

(jal)