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(applause) Thank you.
Thank you Secretary Favila for your
introduction.
Other Cabinet members, Congresswoman Angping,
other public officials, Ambassador Liu, our other friends from China, Dr.
Alfonso Uy and the other leaders of the Filipino-Chinese community, other
guests, ladies and gentlemen. Happy Independence Day! and Happy
Filipino-Chinese Friendship Day! (applause)
How nice to hear from Ambassador Liu the
story of my early interest in Filipino-Chinese Friendship which goes back to
my involvement in the then Association for Philippines-China Understanding.
We worked then in the 1970s for closer
Philippine-Chinese relations and for diplomatic relations. And we are very
happy that now we are friends and diplomatic partners with the People’s
Republic of China. (applause)
I also thank the Ambassador for recalling to
us what I did in my first year as President issuing Proclamation No. 148 to
celebrate June 9 of every year as Filipino-Chinese Friendship Day.
(applause) And why not, after all the friendship and affinity between our
two peoples is centuries old, maybe thousands of years old. Because it is
said that during the Ice Age, the Philippine archipelago was contiguous to
the Asian mainland. So people from China migrated to the Philippines and
other parts of Southeast Asia through land bridges and permanently settled
in some parts of the Philippines.
That continued through the centuries, and we
know from the few centuries ago how trade flourished between our two
countries and therefore how Chinese merchants not only traded with the
Philippines but began to live in the Philippines. And that is why we have
such a thriving Filipino-Chinese community today.
Among the Chinese who settled in the
Philippines, many of you also know, was my husband’s ancestors, Sontua. He
was a merchant from China who became successful and who helped finance the
defense of the Philippines against the British forces and therefore earned
for himself a Spanish nobility title. So, I am glad that my children are
great great grandchildren of a gallant Filipino-Chinese merchant. (applause)
Many other notable Filipinos of Chinese
ancestry were also known freedom fighters, the most prominent being our
national hero Jose Rizal, whose greatness is remembered with a park in his
name in his ancestral city of Jinjiang in Fujian Province. And when I
visited China on my second state visit… Oh, no, no, different one. In my
visit to Fujian many of you in the Filipino-Chinese community were there and
we all visited and paid homage together to the Shrine of Dr. Jose Rizal.
Practically every Filipino has a Chinese
ancestor, although not everyone might be able to trace his Chinese great
great great grandfather the way my children can do. But even if most
Filipinos cannot name their Chinese ancestors, we are all thankful for the
indelible contribution the Chinese have made to Philippine economic and
cultural life. Filipinos have absorbed a significant amount of Chinese
culture and traditions and melded them with our own, from our cuisine -- our
pancit, our lumpia, so many other delicious dishes are Chinese -- to the
honorifics we use to address our elders -- “mano po” and all those
other beautiful
traditions.
Given the very valuable role the Chinese
have played and continue to play in Philippine development, one of the other
things I signed was not only the proclamation on Philippine-Chinese
Friendship but also Republic Act 9139, which helps other nationalities as
well the Administrative Naturalization Law in 2001, to ease up the
naturalization process for native-born Chinese or other native-born aliens
for that matter. I wish more Chinoys would use the law. And if you have some
problems with the rules and regulations, please let us know so we can ease
them because we want our Filipino-Chinese friends living in the Philippines
to be Filipino citizens. (applause)
Today, our centuries-old relationship takes
on greater significance, as China’s breathtaking economic success earns the
admiration and respect of the world community, especially in the midst of
the global slowdown. There are many countries that are looking forward to to
lead us towards recovery and among the many countries being mentioned as the
ones who will lead us out of the global economic crisis, the one that is
best truly fulfilling that promise is none other than the economy of the
People’s Republic of China. (applause)
In China, manufacturing is stabilizing,
housing and auto sales are growing. Imports of iron ore and other raw
materials are turning around in that important economy. And that is
especially important for the Philippines because China has been a very
important buyer of our mineral industry. So China’s many good economic news
accounts for much of the news of investor-confidence returning not only in
China, not only in the Philippines but in the whole world. So, through
Ambassador Liu, we thank the People’s Republic of China for leading us out
of the global recession. (applause)
And recession or no recession as the world’s
biggest developing country, China is taking its place on the global stage to
ensure that the interests of developing countries are protected and
promoted.
We in the Philippines are privileged to
benefit from China’s participation in world trade. I don’t know if some of
you were able to watch the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum where
I said that as far as we are concerned in the Philippines China’s rise is to
the benefit of the Philippines. And as China leads everybody out of the
global economic crisis, the Philippines is one of those who benefit the
most. (applause)
And this is not only now, ever since China
entered the World Trade Organization, China has become one of the biggest
trading partners of the Philippines. In fact, it is our largest export
market today. China is also an important friend and partner for development,
particularly in its Official Development Assistance for projects that have a
big impact on the lives of our people.
In the course of our bilateral relations, we
have developed various channels of dialogue covering different areas of
policy and cooperation. The Philippines and China support each other in
meaningful initiatives in regional and international fora, such as ASEAN
Plus Three, the ASEAN Regional Forum, the East Asia Summit and APEC. And one
of the important channels of dialogue between China and the Philippines is
none other than the Filipino-Chinese community itself. Thank you for that.
(applause)
Recently, the Philippines opened two new
consulates in China: one in the Macau Special Administrative Region and the
other one in Chongqing, in line with the “Go West” policy of China. For a
country of our size, the presence of as many as seven resident missions on
Chinese territory shows our political commitment to bilateral relations with
China. I don’t know if we have any other country with as many consulates as
we have in China.
Helping each other in times of natural
calamities is also the result of the deep friendship between our two
nations. On several occasions, China has given us valuable assistance for
rescue and relief.
And today, I thank Ambassador Liu and our
Chinese painter, for giving us a beautiful remembrance and memento of the
visit to the Philippines of the 100 schoolchildren from the province of
Sichuan that had suffered a massive earthquake and left thousands of
families in grief. So, we have so many mementos of the close friendship
between China and the Philippines, and between the Chinese people and the
Filipino people. But as I said, the most important memento of that is none
other than our Filipino-Chinese community. (applause)
Earlier, Ambassador Liu gave a very nice
saying, “Divided we fail, together we prevail.” And the Filipino-Chinese
community is a very good testament of that because the Filipino-Chinese
community is such an advocate for unity, for being together so that we can
prevail. And that reminds me of another saying, “When people are of one mind
and heart, they can move mountains.”
Filipinos are of one heart with our Chinese
friends in keeping our partnership strong, mature, and forward-looking. So,
when we talk about Filipino-Chinese Friendship Day, we talk about the
friendship between the people in the Philippines and the people in the
People’s Republic of China. But we also talk about the friendship between
the Filipino-Chinese living in the Philippines and the rest of the Filipino
community here.
So to our Chinese friends in China, to our
Chinese friends in the Philippines, and to our Filipino-Chinese friends,
xie xie. (applause)
Happy Friendship Day! and Happy Independence
Day! Thank you. (applause)
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