Presidents Of The Philippines

"As President, I have never prayed for anything for myself; only for our people."

"As I came to power peacefully, so shall I keep it. That is my contract with my people and my commitment to God."

"With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the rights as God gives us to see the rights, let us finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and for his orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

"In giving, we receive; in losing, we find; and out of defeat, we snatched our victory."

"By the grace of God and the unshakeable faith of the Filipino people, I am confident we shall pull through."

"I am not embarrassed to tell you that I believe in miracles."

"The nation was awakened by that deafening shot."

"This is the glory of democracy, that its most solemn moment should be the peaceful transfer of power."

"I hope that history will judge me as favorably as our people still regard me because, as God is my witness, I honestly did the best I could. No more can be asked of any man."

"Government often had to do what pressing realities compelled it. And if the government sometimes lacked better choices, it never lacked the sincere desire to do good."

"While my power as president ends in 1992, my responsibility as a Filipino for the well-being of my country goes beyond it to my grave. A great part of that responsibility is to do the best I can today, according to my best lights, while I have the power to do it."

"It is my aim to add the distinction of shepherding our democracy through its first political succession, by clean and peaceful elections."

"I firmly believe in the freedom of the press. And I accept the criticisms poured on me, painful as they are, as part and parcel of the hazards of public service, and conducive to its honest performance."

"I would rather die a meaningful death than to live a meaningless life."

"People used to compare me to the ideal president, but he doesn´t exist and never existed. He has never lived."

"For the first time in the history of the world, a civilian population has been called to defend the military."

"During Ninoy´s incarceration and before my presidency, I used to ask why it had always to be us to make the sacrifice. And then, when Ninoy died, I would say, ´Why does it have to be me now?´It seemed like we were always the sacrificial lamb."

"I don´t know anything about the presidency."

"Let us rather be grateful to the nation and to the historical moment for the privilege we had of being heroes."

"I believed that nowhere could you find more effective cures for the ills of our country — such as the habit of oppression, the inclination to corruption, betrayal of the public interest — than in the blessings of democracy: freedom; rights; transparent dealings; and a government of the people by the people themselves."

"None of the good that we do is ever lost; not even the light in an empty room is wasted."

"I consider myself lucky that Emil Jurado taught me English for only one semester. I'm afraid to think of what my English would now be if he had taught me any longer. This is what I get for having been attentive during his class."

"Cleanliness starts in the toilet."

"“They threw at me not just the kitchen sink but also the toilet bowl.""

"On a scale of 1 to 10, I give myself 70 percent."

"The Japanese, the Chinese and other Asian countries speak their dialect (when dealing with other countries) -- I don't see why we Filipinos cannot speak our own dialect."

"The Trustees of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines, representing the 1,425 CEAP member-schools, colleges, and universities, support the faculty of the Ateneo de Manila University in their call against the attempt of Ferdinand Marcos Jr to canonize the harrowing horrors of martial rule."

""Ipaubaya natin ang kasaysayan sa mga propesor, sa mga nag-aaral tungkol sa kasaysayan ng Pilipinas. Kami hindi namin trabaho yun. Ang trabaho namin ay tingnan kung ano ba ang pangangailangan ng taong bayan ngayon." (Let us leave history to the professors, to those who study the history of the Philippines. It is not our job. Our job is to look at what the people need at present.)"

""In response to Ferdinand "Bongbong" Romualdez Marcos, Jr.'s call that teachers and students of history should make a judgment about the Marcos administration, we, the undersigned members of the Ateneo de Manila community, vehemently oppose and condemn the ongoing willful distortion of our history. We deplore the shameless refusal to acknowledge the crimes of the Martial Law regime. We reject the revision of history, disturbing vision of the future, and shallow call for "unity" being presented by Marcos Jr. and like-minded candidates in the 2016 elections."

""Great danger now lurks behind a deceptive nostalgia for a past that never really existed—that the Marcos years were a period of peace and prosperity. This is patently Marcos myth and deception. Under martial law, the country was plunged into a climate of repression and plunder and then into a social crisis that exploded in the 1980s."

"At what point do you say, ‘Enough is enough’? Well, the world has to say it — remember that the Sudetenland was given in an attempt to appease Hitler to prevent World War II."

"If no one is corrupt, no one will be poor."

"We also know that excellent public servants do not just transform a society; they inspire. Millions of Filipinos grieved when Jesse Robredo passed. For almost two decades, he served and led Naga with skill, compassion, and humility. These principles of his are the exact reasons we borrowed him from Congresswoman Leni and their three children, and from the Nagueños, so that he could become part of our Cabinet. This is why one of the hardest things I ever had to do as President was to deliver the news to Leni and their daughters, after the tragedy."

"Apart from grieving, I could not avoid blaming myself for what happened to Jesse. Maybe if I had not asked him to join my Cabinet, he would still be alive today. Maybe if he had remained in Naga, he would still be with us. Maybe there would still be a Jesse Robredo in public service today."

"But I also know that Jesse would not allow the transformation and righting of society to end with him. Jesse and I were only given opportunities to serve the country because of all of you. We cannot have just one face for transformation and change. We should not have to wait another hundred years before the next good citizen is born, before the next good Filipino rises to the occasion."

"Then, President Cory passed away, and Senator Noynoy spoke at her funeral. That is when we truly saw him."

"My loyalty to my party ends where my loyalty to my country begins."

"It is true, and I am proud of it, that I once said, “I would rather have a government run like hell by Filipinos than a government run like heaven by Americans.” I want to tell you that I have, in my life, made no other remark which went around the world but that. There had been no paper in the United States, including a village paper, which did not print that statement, and I also had seen it printed in many newspapers in Europe. I would rather have a government run like hell by Filipinos than a government run like heaven by any foreigner. I said that once; I say it again, and I will always say it as long as I live."

"As archived on Gov.ph (Accessed 2015)"

"The Latin American people believed and feel that we Filipinos form past of that vast family, the children of Spain. Thus, although Spain ceased to govern those countries many years ago and although another nation is sovereign in the Philippines, those Latin-American peoples feel themselves as brothers to the people of the Philippines. It is the Spanish language that still binds us to those peoples, and the Spanish language will bind us to those peoples eternally if we have the wisdom and patriotism of preserving it."

"As you prepare to relinquish the duties and responsibilities of your high office, I send you my warm good wishes. I know that you must take great satisfaction in having served your country with such distinction in its highest office. The friendship of our two nations has grown even closer under your leadership. Mrs. Johnson and I recall with great pleasure the State Visit which you and Mrs. Macapagal made to our country and send you now our sincere affirmation of friendship and good will."

"I have sat at the sumptuous tables of power, but I have not run away with the silverware."

"Dirty politics has always been around, whenever and wherever there was a government to be won, with the spoils of power and patronage that come with it."

"One night early in my term as senator, an undersecretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways visited me at home. He asked me to nominate a contractor to handle my pork barrel projects, and I said I had none. An inherited staffer explained to me that her old boss used to get a commission from such projects, but I said I would not do that."

"As the events leading to EDSA Dos unfolded, former President Cory together with Cardinal Sin became my twin pillars of strength. She was a true mentor, for she had gone through it all before."

"Johnny Ponce Enrile will surely go down in history as among the most formidable political figures of our time, truly a legend in his own time. To many, that legend is based on his role as the feared Secretary of National Defense during the martial law years era of President Marcos. In reality, through the sheer force of his intelligence, political skill and personal, he has grown beyond that legend to become perhaps the most enduring politician of our time, sometimes still feared, but always respected by friend and for alike for his political capability."

"The transition from academe to government was admittedly difficult. In the academe, I was an authority figure to my students. In government, I was servant to the public, sometimes equal to peers in the executive, but always outranked by those with mandates from the electorate. I learned to respect the civil service in deed as in thought."

"Bill Clinton was my classmate. When the future 42nd President of the United States found out that Dad was president, he wrote his grandmother that his classmate was the first daughter of the Philippines! Half a century later, he wrote in our jubilee yearbook: "Our class produced three presidents, Alfredo Cristiano, whom I did not know, and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, whom I knew and liked.""

"Indeed, the 1960s was a time of radical change. So much was happening — in science and technology, religion, politics, culture, and society as a whole — and at a fast pace. Imagine how my curiosity was piqued by everything going on around me. If there was ever a time that I developed a love for learning, an ability to focus on responsibility, and to deliver on my own goals, it was then."

"From Bonifacio at Balintawak to Cory Aquino at EDSA and up to today, we have struggled to bring power to the people, and this country to the eminence it deserves."