President Ramon Magsaysay’s last days - Part 3

This is how the Official Gazette recorded the last days of President Magsaysay which were spent in Cebu:

“But the President warned in his Southwestern College speech that “we must not allow insidious proposals of economic panaceas to alienate us from our traditional allies in the free world. Let us not delude ourselves that credit arrangement with the enemies of our way of life will solve the, economic problems which afflict our land.”

“We must recognize that no pie-in-the-sky’ formula will cure all our ills; and that we face a continuing demand for calm thinking, sound reason, impassionate and undramatic hard work.”

“At the University of the Visayas, President Magsaysay devoted his commencement address to the efforts of his administration to improve the educational structure of the country.

“He said his administration had been seeking to re-order the educational structure “so that it may become a more effective instrument for jacking up our capacity to the rising level of our needs.”

“The President pointed out that while much of the country’s wealth has remained idle, there are not enough men and women being trained to develop them owing to the fact that “our educational offerings have been too circumscribed.”

“As a result, he pointed out, graduates of high schools or colleges find little opportunities for them owing either to lack of preparation or the lack of room in crowded professions.

“He asserted, “We must find a way to divert effectively the vast energy latent in our youth, to the channels of our economic and social redemption. The Board of National Education, which the administration has organized, is making satisfactory progress in this direction.”

“The President ate his dinner at the home of Mayor Osmeña. At 9 p.m. he was the guest of the Patria Society and then an hour later, spoke before local veterans and the local Chinese chamber of commerce.”

CEBUpedia note: Not recorded is the visit of President Magsaysay to the Archbishop’s Palace. He prayed at the chapel. To commemorate his visit, a memorial plaque is mounted on the wall of the chapel. (To be continued)