Pre-Presidential Speeches
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Pre-Presidential Speeches • Luncheon Honoring Philippine Generals Santos & Valdez, Manila [January 1939] Our honored guests, this noon, have been the two senior officers of the Philippine Army practically from the date of its founding. No one could possibly be more familiar with the work they have done during the past three years, with the energy, the thought, the character, they have devoted to their duties, than myself. It is for this reason that I felt privileged to ask you to meet with me today in tribute to them, at the moment when one of them leaves the Army to assume another important position in the service of his people, while the other moves up to shoulder the responsibilities of the highest military post. Recently, I attended a movie in which one obstreperous female character asserted, each time she opened her mouth, that she spoke for two million club-women of the United States. Unlike that person, I am not authorized to speak for any group or sect, for any military or civil organization, or even for any individual except only Ike Eisenhower. But to my own opinions as to the loyalty, abilities and worthwhile accomplishments of Generals Santos and Valdez in the Philippine Army, I can and do give the most emphatic expression. Confirmation of my convictions can be found in every district, every city, every barrio of the Philippines. Slow but steady development of a real defensive force, progress toward greater unification of a people through intermingling in training station, better physiques among the trainees, greater observance of rules of health and hygiene and, finally, a definitely enhancing appreciation of the requirements of democratic citizenship, are but a few of the accomplishments traceable wholly or in part to the gradual unfolding of the defense plan. In this process our honor guests have played important, untiring and effective parts. My years of intimate contacts and personal friendship with these two men have been, for me, a real privilege and a source of inspiration. So it is with sincerity and earnestness that I congratulate the Mindanao re- settlement organization on its good fortune in obtaining General Santos as its Manager, and the Philippine Army in having General Valdez to serve as its Chief of Staff. A moment ago I said that I spoke for no one but myself. Now I should like to modify that statement momentarily, and to this extent. If there is present any man that will not permit me to speak for him in wishing for General Santos and General Valdez a full measure of happiness in their new assignments, and unbroken continuation of their illustrious careers, then that man was invited here today by mistake. For I am determined that this thought shall be the sense of this meeting - enthusiastically adopted - by acclamation. • ROTC commencement exercises, University of the Philippines, March 24, 1939 The Commonwealth Government is presently engaged in the development and utilization of its resources to meet the anticipated problems of future independence. In the fields of economics, politics, industry, social science, education and national security, great questions present themselves constantly for consideration, and the effects of answers developed today will extend indefinitely into the future. Among these questions, none is clothed in greater significance than that of providing an adequate security - of developing the means and methods that will assure reasonable protection for the nation once it has been completely freed of all outside control, and, coincidentally, stripped of all outside support. Military discussions need not, in these days, be prefaced with long and exhaustive arguments to prove a nation's need for defensive strength. World events, daily reported in our newspapers, continue to hammer home the deplorable fact that life, liberty and property are not safe in a defenseless nation when its wealth is coveted by a more powerful neighbor. Indeed, this is not a newly discovered truth - two thousand years ago the greatest of all men said, “When a strong man, armed, keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace.” In the program adopted by the Philippines to meet its defensive requirements, the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps is an indispensable feature. Consequently, in a very direct and important fashion, the destiny of an independent Philippines will be influenced and determined by the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps of today and of tomorrow. Because of the great significance to future Filipino welfare of this organization I feel particularly honored in the invitation to address you today. Entertaining such a conviction, I have not come here merely to offer you customary, though very sincere, congratulations upon the obvious perfection of your military ceremonies, nor upon the completion of another definite step in your academic and military education. Neither shall I attempt, in resounding generality, to expound upon those ennobling human sentiments and beautiful philosophies that are so frequently the subject of the commencement discourse. Rather, I am here to talk to you as one soldier to another on military matters that I am convinced will become of increasing importance to you and to your country as the years roll on. As members of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps you are primarily citizens, and secondarily, soldiers. In the first of these capacities you enjoy all the rights and privileges of any other citizen; in the other you are compelled to forego such of those rights and privileges as involve participation in the political activities, decisions and policies of your nation. This distinction must be meticulously observed, because, in a democracy, the military is and must remain subordinate to civil power; the army is nothing but the servant, the tool, of civil government. Since this discussion is between soldiers, let us not concern ourselves with the wisdom of any political decision of the past or speculate on the possibility of significant political changes of the future. Rather, let us accept the political pattern as it now exists and as now projected by existing conventions, and confine ourselves to an investigation of our own duties, our own responsibilities and our own opportunities within this sphere. The Philippine Defense plan was conceived in the purpose of providing maximum security at minimum financial cost. Of such dominating influence was, and is, the need for minimizing expense, that all thought of developing a strong professional army had to be flatly rejected. For this reason if for no other, the citizen- soldier must be the bulwark of Philippine defense! Lack of money with which to hire workmen for any task is not serious, provided we are ready, and able, to do the job ourselves. So long as there exists among a nation’s citizens a common and flaming determination to protect themselves and their homes against any invasion by force, they can, in unified effort, develop a formidable defensive power. The Philippine Defense plan assumes that this spirit does exist and will continue to grow and flourish in these Islands. As a consequence of these considerations and assumptions, the defense plan simply provides the machinery whereby the free citizens of this country may cooperate toward their own protection. They must be reasonably trained, properly equipped, well organized and efficiently led, so that they may be instantaneously ready in every province and barrio to line your beaches with the defensive fires that will beat back any attempted invasion. The plans attempt to provide, in detail, for satisfaction of these various requirements. The function of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, in this great program, is to develop commissioned officers for the citizen forces; that is, for the great bulk of the whole Army. The officer is the keystone of the military arch. No army can carry out a difficult task, indeed it can scarcely perform the routine functions of peace without an efficient officer corps. Ragged armies, poorly equipped, badly outnumbered and half starved have, in the world’s history, earned astounding victories when efficiently led. On the other hand, I know of no army in which the officer corps was rotten with corruption or professionally was inept, lazy and stupid, that has achieved decisive results, even over an inconsequential opponent. You are a cross-section of the Philippines’ finest young manhood, a cross-section that has been unusually favored in educational and cultural advantages, and possibly, also in economic standing. You are the men to whom others of your generation will naturally turn, in times of stress, for leadership. If, in that greatest of all crises, war, you are to be worthy of your birthright, and ready upon your country’s call to lead men in battle, it means years of study and self-preparation. There is no royal road to this goal - good blood and breeding may produce an excellent raw material, but only earnest and continued work can transform it into a useful lieutenant, an efficient captain, a capable general. Successful defense of these Islands will never be possible unless you devote yourselves to this work, this study, this preparation, even while you are engaged in wresting a living from the world for yourselves and your dependents. Furthermore, you must do this without financial remuneration, your sole reward the sanctity of your firesides, the esteem of your countrymen and the approval of your own conscience. Here, then, is the challenge to you as individuals and as an organization. Will you make of yourselves good officers? Between success and failure lies a vast gulf of personal and national possibilities - even perhaps the difference between virile independence and hopeless bondage. The thorough training of an officer is an intricate process. On the physical side he must develop his stamina and strength, as well as a certain dexterity in those movements and exercises in which he, as a junior officer, is required to be an instructor.