Oras Na!
(Speech delivered by Sen. Mar Roxas at the LP NECO Meeting held on Monday, November 26 at the Kalayaan Hall of Club Filipino)
Tinatanggap ko ng buong kababaan ng loob ang karangalan na maging pangulo ng partidong Liberal.
Nagpapasalamat ako sa inyong lahat na bumubuo ng Partido Liberal.
Nais ko ding magpasalamat sa ating mga bisita na dumalo ngayong umaga para ipadama at ipakita ang kanilang suporta sa inyong abang lingkod.
Dahil po sa inyong pagtitiwala, ako ngayon ay tumatayo sa makasaysayang entabladong ito.
Today our Party has taken another determined step in its already long and illustrious journey. And I too am taking this same step towards bringing our Party’s honorable history into the greater service of our people.
Yesterday, our Party was led by statesmen who fought to win back for our people, their rights to freedom, justice and the rule of law. Today, our Party is led by us, fighting the enemies of freedom, the perpetrators of injustice, and the corruptors of the rule of law.
Yesterday, I sought to live by the exalted principles and traditions of our Party – the core beliefs of conscience over ambition, principles above glory, integrity over power. Today, I take responsibility for applying these principles and traditions to the challenges of our times.
Today our noble party, founded by President Manuel Roxas in 1945, is being entrusted to my care.
We owe the freedoms we enjoy today to LP stalwarts Benigno Aquino, Evelio Javier, Cesar Climaco, Joe Lingad, Gerry Roxas, among so many others; to leaders such as Ka Jovy Salonga, Ka Bobby Tanada, Raul Daza, Butch Abad. At certain periods of our history, these great men held back the night and opened the doors to freedom and light. Sa kahabaan ng gabi, sila ang nagbigay sa atin ng liwanag.
This battle for civil liberties, justice, and freedom was bravely carried forth by my predecessor, Senate President Frank Drilon. And I thank him for bringing in our ship through turbulent waters into safe harbor. Salamat, Senator Drilon, sa iyong pagbabantay at pagsasakripisyo para sa ating partido.
Our LP leaders were prepared to wage lonely battles for their beliefs, suffer humiliation and isolation, and even face imprisonment and death with calm acceptance of the consequences of their actions. Citizens looked up to them. Young people aspired to be them.
Who can forget the martyrdom of Senator Ninoy Aquino, the miracle of EDSA 1 and the quiet and enduring courage of President Cory C. Aquino?
Who can forget how the Philippine Senate led by Senate President Jovy Salonga and his fellow Liberals, including Ka Bobby Tanada, held fast to their conviction, despite enormous contrary pressure, and voted against retaining the US bases?
I feel privileged to have seen up close, and admired from afar this rare breed of statesman-politicians – the kind that wore their hearts on their sleeves, the kind that believed in the resonance and romance of history.
I was just a young teen-ager when Plaza Miranda was bombed.
One cannot have such intimate recollections of the past and be indifferent to what is going on in our present. One cannot be a part of our beloved Liberal Party and ignore the assaults to our democracy and freedoms as signified by the subversion of our institutions, the number of unresolved killings of journalists and activists, the widespread graft and corruption, and the callous sense of impunity held by those supposed to be accountable to the people.
Today, you cannot be a true Liberal and not be enraged:
That where the people are thirsty for the truth, facts are withheld.
That where the people are keen to engage government, power is not shared.
And where the people express themselves through the ballot, their votes are miscounted.
And because people believe that their leaders are more preoccupied with self-interest rather than with genuine public service, we see and feel the helplessness, the cynicism, the despair, and eventually the estrangement of our people.
Ka Teddy, an OFW in Saudi Arabia, wrote:
“Minsan nga, iniisip namin kung paano na kaya kami kung wala ang Saudi?”
(Imagine that, a Filipino worried about Saudi simply because it is the wellspring of his hope.)
“Mahigit sampung taon na rin ako dito, at minsan lang ako nakauwi sa ‘Pinas – pero sa mga nakikita ko eh lalo pang pahirap ng pahirap ang buhay. Kaya paano pa kami makakaalis dito?”
“Hanggang kailan pa ba kami dito kung walang pagbabago sa ating bayan?”
Ka Teddy’s desperate call for change deserves a sincere response from our nation’s leaders.
Recently, the World Bank reported that even the social contract in our country is breaking down.
This social contract, the most basic bond that ties the people to their government, stipulates that people will obey their government in exchange for their government preserving and protecting their general welfare and fighting for their best interests.
What does this social contract mean to farmer Luisito Bustamante of Davao City?
He disappeared into military custody and was tortured on suspicion of being a communist rebel. And even then he was lucky. The RTC, by the writ of amparo, set him free. What about all the other “desaparecidos” – people like Jonas Burgos who vanished without a trace?
Save for the Martial Law years, at no time in our country’s history, has the Supreme Court been called upon so often to rule on multiple cases of disappearances of persons in the hands of supposed agents of the law.
Oras na. It is time for change, a time for renewal.
You and I must work even harder and with greater urgency to change our country. We have to do it together as a political party and as an organized movement based on values, on ideas, on competence, and on vision.
Our party shall be a movement built around fresh ideas. Our first rule is to treat our Filipino brethren with respect as grown-ups, capable of making wise decisions, and not as children to be amused or pandered to.
Magpapakatotoo tayo. Let us call things as we see them.
Whenever policy is wrong, we are the party that will say No!, and make an honest and determined effort to provide solutions. As important as it is to know the “whodunit”, it is even more important for our future to know the “how-to-solve-it.”
Oras na! It is time for change, a time for renewal.
Our Party seeks to realize nothing less than the hopes of our people.
To win back the kind of government that reflects our people’s honesty, decency, competence, and hard work.
To win our people’s trust in the wisdom and prudence of our public institutions in spending their money.
To win our people’s fair share in the benefits of a growing economy through better jobs, higher incomes, affordable prices, and improved public services.
To win our people’s fight for justice, security, peace and predictability in their lives.
To win our people’s birthright to lead robust, healthy lives, to be educated, to land a job, to own a home, to breathe clean air and drink clean water, and have an attainable plan for their future.
Oras na!
Our Party seeks to win because our winning will be our people’s victory.
We will reach out to all individuals and groups who will fight with us – for freedom, for fairness, for tolerance and for redeeming our faith in our future. These are the battles that I will fully engage in as your party president.
We will be attuned to the modes and methods of the modern world without losing sight of our core values. The world has changed, the challenges have multiplied, and even though the symptoms of poverty and hunger have stayed the same, their causes have evolved in their virulence. Thus, repeating the old cures will no longer help obliterate the disease.
To be relevant and responsive, we must seek out and embrace new ideas, increase our professionalism, formulate policies that offer transformative change.
Business as usual is simply unacceptable.
Oras na!
We will continue to pursue an agenda to bring quality education to the last classroom, reduce hunger and poverty, provide opportunities for decent jobs here and abroad, bring safety to our streets, justice to our courtrooms, and economic freedom to our farmers.
We will strive to build and enlarge our middle class, narrowing the gap between rich and poor by raising the status of the lowly. This will be a home and land owning middle class, engaged in our national life not only by theoretical linkage but because they share in the output of the nations’ economic endeavor.
The Liberal Party will fight for social, legal, and economic justice, and, for clean and honest government.
Oras na!
We shall defend the Constitution, seek relief in the courts when necessary, and team up with the people in fighting corruption and abuses of power.
We shall support professionalism in, and the patriotic duty of our Armed Forces and National Police, and work with local governments and civil society on an agenda for change.
Oras na!
The victory that we seek is the victory of the Filipino people. Their fight is our fight. We believe that the people are the masters of government and not the government as the master of the people.
Oras na! It is time for change, a time for renewal.
The LP will open its doors to calls for unity, but never at the expense of our independence. Every member shall be given every opportunity to shine through their advocacy of ideas and integrity of character.
We shall build a strong, united, and modern LP – rooted in its founding principles, sharpening its purpose – and lead it to victory in 2010.
Oras na!
I accept the burdens of leadership.
I accept the solemn duty of securing the best future for our country through the leadership of our party.
I call on you to come along, roll up your sleeves, open your hearts and re-discover that inner touchstone of idealism that first beckoned us to public service. With moral courage and conviction and with a strong commitment to the tenets of liberal democracy - equal opportunity, freedom, and justice for all – we shall make a difference.
In this hall, twenty-one years ago, our people re-claimed their democratic birthright when Mrs. Corazon Aquino took her oath as President.
Since then, a whole generation has struggled to transform our democratic society into a truly just and prosperous one. Today another generation stands ready to take its turn, ready to assault the high walls of the status quo inspired by the unblemished righteousness of their cause. That generation is us, and many others throughout the country, who believe that the promise of freedom for all has yet to be redeemed by the fulfillment of justice and prosperity for everyone.
Sapagkat ngayon ay oras na.
Sa kahabaan ng gabi sa ilalim ng isang diktador, ang mga Liberal ang nagbigay ng liwanag sa karimlan.
Ngayon ay oras na para tayo naman ang humarap sa hamon ng kasaysayan upang manindigan at lumaban.
Let us, when we must, rage against the dangers of the night; but remain hopeful and ready to embrace the blessings of a new dawn.
We will win because we are fighting for the poor, the helpless, the discouraged, all who only want a decent life and a chance to make their way in this world.
In this and in the many battles ahead of us, I shall not let you down.
Oras NA!
Mabuhay ang Liberal Party!
Maraming salamat po.
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