MANILA, Philippines - Just a month before the 30th anniversary of the 1986 People Power Revolution, President Aquino conceded that democracy would be meaningless without ending hunger and poverty in the country.
In his freedom speech for the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) at Plaza Moriones in Fort Santiago Thursday night, Aquino said freeing people from hunger and breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty are the most vital imperatives of his administration.
The President said he learned from his father, democracy icon senator Benigno Aquino Jr., that people suffering from hunger and poverty would not care much about other freedoms, or even dignity.
Aquino said his father told him that the first freedom must be from hunger when he asked why only a few stood by their family in fighting the Marcos dictatorship that led to the exile of the Aquino family in Boston.
The assassination of senator Aquino in 1983 paved the way for the People Power Revolution that toppled the Marcos dictatorship and catapulted his wife Corazon Aquino to the presidency.
Three decades after the revolution, President Aquino cited the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program as one strategy to make the Filipino people truly free.
“The power of the CCT is that it frees our people not only from hunger and poverty today. Along with our reforms to empower the education sector, the CCT is freeing our children from ignorance; it is freeing parents to dream of better futures for their kids; and it will free succeeding generations to take hold of the economic opportunities that are opening up at present,” Aquino said.
The CCT program is tied with parallel government initiatives like free public school education, maternal and childcare, socialized housing, rehabilitation and poverty alleviation.
Aquino said his administration inherited from the Arroyo administration the CCT program with a mere 786,523 household-beneficiaries, many of whom were just on the list because of political connections.
“It was a middling program being used as a tool for patronage, with little hope of making a real impact on the lives of the poor,” he added.
But by the end of the year, the CCT program will cover 4.6 million households and homeless families, including indigenous people identified by the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction through a non-partisan, scientific process.
Aquino said almost 1.55 million families from the list of beneficiaries, or over 7.7 million individuals, have crossed the poverty threshold because of the CCT program.
The President said the CCT and other programs of the government would ensure that Filipinos would enjoy all other freedoms in the future.
“Freedom from hunger, coupled with increasing opportunities to advance in life, is the foundation upon which we are building a society that allows its citizens to enjoy all other freedoms: the freedom to participate in the market – as part of the labor force, as an owner of a small business and as a consumer who avails of goods and services in a dynamic economy; the freedom to participate in our democracy through engaging in the meaningful issues of the day and through choosing true leaders who embody our national spirit and whose eyes are set firmly on the long-term interests of the nation – not smiling personalities or false prophets, not despots, and not patrons who equate service with favors,” Aquino said.
The FNF is a German political foundation that advocates liberal democracy. It has 60 offices all over the world. In the Philippines, it actively promotes anti-corruption by organizing conferences to discuss the issue and public events to raise awareness and engagement.
FNF closely works with the Liberal Party since it opened its office in the Philippines in 1986. Aside from programs on good governance, FNF supports activities to ensure the protection of human rights and the guarantee of rule of law and the advancement of free trade. The annual FNF Freedom Speech is about the state of freedom in the Philippines.
Aquino thanked partners like the FNF in keeping the flames of freedom burning not just in the Philippines but all over the globe.
“You entered the Philippines in 1986, when the country had just toppled the dictatorship. The FNF was among those first to demonstrate their commitment to assisting the Filipino as we tried to make the most of our newfound freedom from tyranny,” Aquino said.
He also cited the fellowships that FNF has granted to many bright young minds in public service, exposing them to a wider horizon of ideas as they interact with other liberals in the International Academy for Freedom in Germany.
“These Filipinos have in turn applied their knowledge back home, rebuilding our institutions, leading our government units and spreading throughout the bureaucracy the lessons that they have learned,” Aquino said.
The President said Fort Santiago’s walls also stood witness to the many Filipinos who were imprisoned, tortured and executed by those intent on keeping the human spirit bound.
“In light of this history, perhaps it is the most fitting venue to celebrate freedom; to reaffirm our commitment to fight for it; to declare what it means to be a liberal, as reflected in our uniquely Filipino experience,” Aquino said.
“To be a Filipino liberal is to believe in the value of each individual, and to trust in his ability to contribute to the advancement of his fellowman. It means ending hunger and meeting his needs for survival, so that the individual’s life may be uplifted and turned outward,” Aquino said.