INAUGURAL ADDRESS

OF

HIS EXCELLENCY

MANUEL L. QUEZON

PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES

[DELIVERED NOVEMBER 15, 1935, AT THE LEGISLATIVE BUILDING

MANILA, PHILIPPINES]

FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN:

In the exercise of your constitutional prerogative you have elected me to the presidency of the Commonwealth. I am profoundly grateful for this new expression of your confidence, and God helping me I shall not fail you.

The event which is now taking place in our midst transcends in importance the mere induction into office of your Chief Executive. We are bringing into being a new nation. We are inaugurating its government. We are seeing the fruition of our age-old striving for liberty. We are witnessing the final stage in the fulfillment of the noblest undertaking ever attempted by any nation in its dealing with a subject people. And how well this task has been performed is attested to by the blessings which from fourteen million people go to America in this solemn hour. President McKinley's cherished hope has been fulfilled the Filipinos look back with gratitude to the day when Destiny placed their land under the beneficent guidance of the people of the United States.

It is fitting that high dignitaries of the American Government should attend these ceremonies. We are thankful to them for their presence here. The President of the United States, His Excellency, Franklin D. Roosevelt, ever solicitous of our freedom and welfare, has sent to us, as his personal representative, the Secretary of War, Honorable George H. Dern, whose friendship for our people has proven most valuable in the past. Vice President Garner, Speaker Byrns, distinguished members of the Senate with their floor leader, Senator Robinson, and no less distinguished members of the House of Representatives have traveled ten thousand miles to witness this historic event. I feel that by their presence the whole American Nation is here to-day to rejoice with us in the fulfillment of America's pledge generously given that the Filipino people is to become free and independent. It is my hope that the ties of friendship and affection which bind the Philippines to America will remain unbroken and grow stronger after the severance of our political relations with her.

In behalf of the Filipino people, I express deep appreciation to Honorable Frank Murphy, our last Governor-General, for his just and efficient administration and for the wholehearted assistance he has rendered us in the difficult task of laying the constitutional foundations of our new Government.

As we enter upon the threshold of independent nationhood, let us pause for a moment to pay tribute to the memory of Rizal and Bonifacio and all the heroes of our sacred cause in grateful acknowledgment of their patriotic devotion and supreme sacrifice.

Fellow countrymen: The government which we are inaugurating to-day is only a means to an end. It is an instrumentality placed in our hands to prepare ourselves fully for the responsibilities of complete independence. It is essential that this last step be taken with full consciousness of its significance and the great opportunities that it affords to us.

Under the Commonwealth, our life may not be one of ease and comfort, but rather of hardship and sacrifice. We shall face the problems which lie in our path, sparing neither time nor effort in solving them. We shall build a government that will be just, honest, efficient and strong so that the foundations of the coming Republic may be firm and enduring a government, indeed, that must satisfy not only the passing needs of the hour but also the exacting demands of the future. We do not have to tear down the existing institutions in order to give way to a statelier structure. There will be no violent changes from the established order of things, except such as may be absolutely necessary to carry into effect the innovations contemplated by the Constitution. A new edifice shall arise, not out of the ashes of the past, but out of the standing materials of the living present.

Reverence for law as the expression of the popular will is the starting point in a democracy. The maintenance of peace and public order is the joint obligation of the government and the citizen. I have an abiding faith in the good sense of the people and in their respect for law and the constituted authority. Widespread public disorder and lawlessness may cause the downfall of constitutional government and lead to American intervention. Even after independence, if we should prove ourselves incapable of protecting life, liberty, and property of nationals and foreigners, we shall be exposed to the danger of intervention by foreign powers. No one need have any misgivings as to the attitude of the Government toward lawless individuals or subversive movements. They shall be dealt with firmly. Sufficient armed forces will be maintained at all times to quell and suppress any rebellion against the authority of this Government or the sovereignty of the United States. There can be no progress except under the auspices of peace. Without peace and public order it will be impossible to promote education, improve