| 朗読繰り返し 朗読声質 |
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Speech of President Osmeña on the occasion of the Induction into Office of the Members of his New Cabinet* |
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Today I have inducted into office the members of my new Cabinet. I wish to take advantage of this occasion when the heads of our various executive departments are installed in their posts, to summarize in rough outline the developments of the war during the last three years as they affected the functioning of our Commonwealth Government and the carrying out of the independence program as agreed upon between the United States and the Philippines. I wish also to lay down the basic principles that will guide us as we reestablish the Commonwealth Government in our capital city. |
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I would like my co-workers in the government to always bear in mind two cardinal thoughts: First—That there should always be a close relationship between the people and their government, and to achieve this the government must take the people into its confidence. Second—That our government as it is today, is the product of Philippine-American collaboration and that every effort should be exerted to maintain and foster closer relationship between the two peoples. |
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The Japanese occupation of the Philippines was not only a military invasion. It was also an ideological and cultural invasion. It was an attempt to foist on our people the invader’s totalitarian ideas, his spirit of conquest and exploitation, his theories of the superiority of the Yamato race, his way of life. |
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The Filipinos soon found this out, and closing their ears to the alluring promises of the enemy, put up a brave and determined opposition. They continued the struggle even after organized military resistance, so gallantly maintained by American and Filipino soldiers, had to cease before the overwhelming numerical superiority of the enemy. |
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Now that the veil of secrecy imposed by military necessity surrounding the Philippines has been lifted, the outside world has obtained glimpses of the brave and heroic deeds of our guerrillas, the intrepid exponents of popular resistance. All honor to these soldiers of liberty who brilliantly continued the fight of the heroes of Bataan. It would be an error, however, to believe that the struggle was limited to the sphere of action of the guerrilleros. The fountain springs were wider and deeper—they were in the very soul of the people itself. Coming from the ranks of the people, the guerrillas were in reality the people’s army. For this reason, the enemy, inherently despotic and cruel, laid violent hands on the people. But in spite of his repressive measures, resistance persisted all over the country—on the plains as in the mountains, in the population centers as in the remote barrios, in the northernmost islands, in the southernmost tip of the country. It was the common will of the people; it was the entire nation, resolved to oppose, at any cost, domination by the invader. |
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Throughout three long years of misery and suffering, of persecution and sacrifices, the Filipino people remained faithful to their ideals. The military control by the enemy in certain areas, especially near the coasts, did not for a moment break the absolute and complete moral resistance of the people through the length and breadth of the land. |
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To represent this will of the people and to act on their behalf abroad, and especially in the United States, the highest officials of your constitutional government accepted the invitation of the President of the United States to evacuate Corregidor, transferring the seat of Government to Washington, D. C. This step was authorized by an Act of the National Assembly. The Commonwealth officials realized that so long as we maintained the nucleus of the Commonwealth Government abroad, through its head, the President and his Cabinet, and by means of the emergency powers given him by the National Assembly, our legal status under international law would not be changed, even if the enemy were able militarily to occupy all of the Philippine territory. It is well known that mere military occupation of a territory does not confer sovereign rights on the invading army. Thus, despite the Japanese invasion, our Constitutional Government was not only saved from destruction, but continued to function in Washington, D. C. It was officially recognized by the United States and the other 42 members of the important international group known as the United Nations. |
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Working closely with the Government of the United States, your Government, during its stay in that country, set before itself the following objectives:
To maintain the interest of the American people in the redemption of the Philippines as a sacred obligation which had been assumed by the United States;
To speed up the preparation of the necessary men, material and plans for the reconquest of the Philippines;
To accelerate the advent of our independence;
To obtain adequate guarantees of the permanence of our political independence;
To work for our economic rehabilitation and stability as the material foundation of our independent structure. |
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All these objectives have been substantially achieved. |
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The successful landing of the liberating forces under the command of General MacArthur in Leyte, Mindoro, Lingayen, Zambales, Batangas, Bataan and Corregidor, followed by the complete occupation of the City of Manila, represents a partial but eloquent reply to our appeals to the United States for aid in our redemption. The might of America which has destroyed in a few weeks all the power built up by Japan in years will continue to be employed until every vestige of the invasion has disappeared from our soil. |
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We were on the road to independence in accordance with the program agreed upon between the United States and the Philippines when Japan treacherously attacked us, bent on taking away that freedom from us. The leaders of your government have taken the necessary steps in the United States so that the realization of this independence program would not be delayed in spite of the war. Not only is the speedy realization of this program already assured, but we have obtained a new and important concession from the United States: the formal pledge that our independence will be guaranteed. |
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Having been a member during the last twenty years of various Philippine missions sent to the United States, I may say that during our negotiations for independence with the leaders of the two principal parties in the United States, we had never before found any interest among them in the protection of our independence, once granted. The best that we heard from our sympathizers was that since we wanted to be independent, and since independence had been promised, it would be given to us; but once given, our political connection with the United States would be definitely terminated. This aroused in the minds of many of us serious concern as to the future of our independent Philippines. Living in the Orient, surrounded by countries with enormous populations, some of them possessing the spirit of aggression and conquest, never in the past had we discovered a completely satisfactory answer to the question frequently addressed to us as to how we could assure the inviolability of our territory against aggression from a first-class power. It will be recalled in this connection that after our revolutions of 1896 and 1898, when our people succeeded in establishing a republican government in Malolos, the leading officials of that government opened negotiations with the United States for the independence of the Philippines under American protection. The proposal failed of acceptance. It will also be recalled that throughout the long period of our peaceful campaign for independence, all of our political parties always had in their platforms planks expressive of the desire of our people to obtain guarantees of our independence, after its concession by the sovereign power. In these platforms, especially in that of the Nationalist Party, the idea of the neutralization of the Philippines was repeatedly included. |
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On December 28, 1941, President Roosevelt promised that our independence would be established and protected. This was the first time that a high American official came out with the promise of protection after independence. This promise which gave great encouragement to our soldiers in Bataan, then fighting side by side with the Americans, was an important factor in our decision to transfer the seat of government to the United States to continue there the campaign for independence which seemed to be on the verge of defeat in the Philippines despite the loyalty and heroism of our people. With our reverses on the battlefield, the next phase would have to be fought in the field of diplomacy. If the leaders of the Commonwealth Government had committed the grave error of placing themselves within the power of the enemy, not only would every semblance of constitutional government have disappeared, but such a step would have given rise in the United States to the belief that our people had renounced their long-desired independence, the real independence pledged by America, and had resigned themselves to the status of a mere vassal of the Japanese Empire. |
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I take great satisfaction in informing our people that the promise of independence with American protection made by President Roosevelt on December 28, 1941, which was reiterated by him on August 13, 1943, was given legislative sanction when Congress approved S. J. Res. No. 93 and which became law on June 29, 1944. This Joint Resolution was introduced in the Congress of the United States at our request. We gave it our firm support while it was under consideration by both Houses of Congress and it was finally approved without any party division. In fact, the vote in both chambers was unanimous. |
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Thus, the protracted negotiations for our independence which were initiated by the first parliamentary mission to the United States in 1922 under the chairmanship of Manuel L. Quezon, at that time President of the Senate were happily concluded under the authority of the Government of the Commonwealth which functioned in Washington, D. C., from May 13, 1942, to October 3, 1944. The independence of which Rizal and all the other martyrs in our history dreamed, and for the realization of which the heroes of our revolutions gave their lives, will not only be a reality but there is now positive assurance that the blessings of liberty which that independence will bring snail be permanent and enduring. |
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Foreseeing the serious problems brought about by the ravages of war and the imperative need for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the country, your Commonwealth Government urged the passage of the necessary legislation by the Congress of the United States. Such legislation was approved on June 29, 1944, and under its provisions a Filipino Rehabilitation Commission has been created, composed of nine Americans and nine Filipinos. It is now sitting in Washington and is investigating all the war damages and other rehabilitation needs for proper action, and is formulating plans for our future economic relations with the United States. |
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Among its most urgent tasks, which likewise is an inescapable duty of the Commonwealth Government as a whole, is that of giving the utmost possible aid to the war victims in our country—the war veterans, especially those disabled or crippled; to the widows and orphans who have lost their loved ones in this holocaust of war and misery; to the lonely fathers and mothers who have sacrificed their beloved sons on the altar of freedom and democracy; to the peasant family who had lost its work animals and seen its productive fields devastated by the enemy; to the artisans and the factory workers who are now jobless and in want; to the homeless city dwellers, fire victims who now live in shambles and in crowded rooms unfit for human habitation; to the survivors of the wholesale massacres in Manila and other places in the Philippines. |
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In the realization of the ideal of independence guaranteed by the United States, the roots of which may be traced back to the glorious days of the Philippine Revolution, the attitude of the Filipinos in Bataan and throughout the whole country has been a vital factor. This is so because it has inaugurated a new era in Filipino-American relationship. It has sealed forever the ties of friendship and understanding binding the two peoples. In the American people it has created a permanent interest in our welfare, our freedom, and our security. Into our people it has infused a new spirit of high responsibility and it has strengthened the friendship and goodwill towards the United States. To the other democracies of the world, this attitude has brought the conviction that the Filipino people has already come of age and as a result, these nations, anticipating the date of our independence, have treated the Philippines as an independent nation so that throughout our stay in Washington, D. C., our representatives met the representatives of these nations on a basis of complete equality. |
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It is for this reason that in the first words I uttered upon my stepping on Philippine soil in Leyte in October, 1944, I affirmed that we came not only to restore the functions of the Government of the Commonwealth which existed at the time of the Japanese attack on December 8, 1941, but to reestablish the Commonwealth Government in a more advanced and progressive form. With this advanced status, we will enjoy new powers which we propose to exercise with care and with the welfare of our people as our sole guide. Obviously, this new situation imposes likewise wider responsibilities which we should shoulder without vacillation. |
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At this moment when we reestablish our Government in the capital of the Philippines, it is fitting that we make known the ideals and principles which will guide our actions. |
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We hereby reaffirm our faith in, and adherence to, the principles of freedom and democracy—a faith and an adherence born, in the early days of our Malay history, nurtured by four hundred years of Western contact, consecrated by our revolutionary fathers, invigorated by the teachings of America, ratified in the constitutional processes of our Commonwealth, and now sanctified by the blood of the thousands of Filipino martyrs and heroes of the present war. |
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We condemn the totalitarian ideology which the enemy has sought to impose on us under a government by self-constituted or God-chosen rulers, and we hereby reaffirm our devotion to the principles of popular sovereignty, of a government of the people, for the people, and by the people. |
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We believe in the superiority of a responsible democracy, peaceful and law-abiding, loyal to its institutions and determined to fight for its way of life, over a degenerate fascism and totalitarianism with its regimented lives, devoid of wills of their own. |
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We shall reestablish in our country a social and political system which is founded on mutual faith, honesty and confidence and not on suspicion, corruption and fear, and in which government officials and employees are not the masters of the people but their servants, acting as necessary instrumentalities through which the public good and the individual welfare may be advanced and safeguarded. |
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We denounce the barbarous doctrine of collective responsibility for individual acts under which thousands of innocent men and women have met their death. |
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We stand for the individual liberties, guaranteed by our Constitution, for the right of every man and woman to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. |
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We reject the theory of the existence of chosen or superior races; we hold to the self-evident truth that no particular race has a monopoly on the capacity for progress and self-government. |
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We believe in the universality of culture, and we shall seek the implements of progress in whatever source they may be found. |
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We reaffirm our faith in the principle of Philippine-American collaboration, its workability having been successfully tested both in peace and in war. This principle has been responsible for the unparalleled progress of our country during the last 46 years. It is a guarantee for the permanence of Christian civilization in the Orient. |
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We reiterate our adherence to the Atlantic Charter signed by the United Nations of which we are a member; for in that document they expressed their desire to effect no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed will of the people concerned, and “to respect the right of all people to choose the form of government under which they will live.”
We believe in the efficacy of the principle of collective security as a guarantee of world peace and the best assurance of the settlement of international disputes not by the arbitrament of arms but by the processes of peace and justice. The legislation providing for the use, after the independence of the Philippines, by the United States of naval and air bases here for the mutual protection of the Philippines and the United States is a concrete example of the application of this principle. It is a mutual agreement designed not only for the protection of both nations but as a contribution to the peace of the Pacific region and the collective security of the nations of the world. |
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We stand for a new world free from want and fear, provided with greater safeguards for lasting peace and offering ample opportunities for friendly negotiations and judicial adjudication of international disputes and the self-development of nations. We are ready to take part, in close association with the United States, in any international pact based on justice and directed toward the organization and preservation of the peace of the world. |
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On these principles we take our stand. |
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By the miseries, the sufferings and the sacrifices undergone by our people during their long night of captivity;
By the smoke that even now rises from our ravaged cities, towns and villages;
By the blood, Filipino as well as American, which was poured out so unstintedly at Bataan and on Corregidor; in the hills of Leyte, the mountains and plains of Luzon, and all over the Philippines;
We call on the God of Nations to witness, for ourselves and for a people welded into one in the crucible of fire, this pledge to consecrate to the determined prosecution of this war until final victory is achieved, our lives, and that which our fathers have bequeathed to us and without which life would be meaningless—our sacred honor. |