[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 43 (Monday, October 27, 2003)]
[Pages 1427-1430]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to a Joint Session of the Philippine Congress in Quezon City, 
Philippines

October 18, 2003

    Thank you all very much. Thank you. Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, 
Members of the Congress, distinguished guests, I thank you for your 
gracious welcome to the Republic of the Philippines. I also want to 
thank the citizens of Manila who lined the streets today for their warm 
and gracious welcome to Laura and me. It warmed our hearts. And I want 
to thank you for inviting me to be the first American President since 
Dwight Eisenhower to address this body.
    Earlier this year, Laura and I hosted President and Attorney Arroyo 
at the White House, the first state visit from an Asian country during 
my administration. Today we are honored to visit America's oldest ally 
in Asia and one of America's most valued friends in the world.
    The great patriot Jose Rizal said that nations win their freedom by 
deserving it, by loving what is just, what is good, what is great to the 
point of dying for it. In the 107 years since that good man's heroic 
death, Filipinos have fought for justice; you have sacrificed for 
democracy; you have earned your freedom.
    America is proud of its part in the great story of the Filipino 
people. Together our soldiers liberated the Philippines from colonial 
rule. Together we rescued the islands from invasion and occupation. The 
names of Bataan, Corregidor, Leyte, Luzon evoke the memories of shared 
struggle and shared loss and shared victory. Veterans of those battles 
are here today. I salute your courage and your service. Along the way 
and through the years, Americans have gained an abiding respect for the 
character of your nation and for the decency and courage of the Filipino 
people.
    The Pacific is wide, but it does not divide us. Over 2 million 
American citizens trace their ancestry to these islands. The commerce 
between us is vibrant and growing. We work together each day in law 
enforcement and economic development and government reform. Our young 
people study at each other's universities. Many Filipinos teach in 
American public schools. And just this week, our two Governments 
launched a 6-year effort to extend greater educational opportunities to 
children in some of the poorest regions of this country. We understand--
we both know that education helps defeat poverty.
    The United States and the Philippines are warm friends. We cherish 
that friendship, and we will keep it strong. Our countries are

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joined by more than a market, even more than an alliance. This 
friendship is rooted in the deepest convictions we hold. We believe in 
free enterprise, disciplined by humanity and compassion. We believe in 
the importance of religious faith, protected by religious liberty. We 
believe in the rule of law, made legitimate by the will of the people. 
And we believe that democracy is the only form of government fully 
compatible with human dignity.
    These ideals speak to men and women in every culture; yet they are 
under attack in many cultures in many parts of the world. A new 
totalitarian threat has risen against civilization. Like other 
militarists and fascists before them, the terrorists and their allies 
seek to control every mind and soul. They seek to spread chaos and fear, 
intimidate whole societies, and silence all opposition. They seek 
weapons of mass destruction to complete their hatred and genocide. The 
terrorists will continue their missions of murder and suicide until 
they're stopped, and we will stop them.
    Every nation in Asia and across the world now faces a choice. 
Nations that choose to support terror are complicit in a war against 
civilization. Nations that try to ignore terror and hope it will only 
strike others are deluding themselves, undermining our common defense, 
and inviting a future of catastrophic violence. Nations that choose to 
fight terror are defending their own safety and the safety of free 
people everywhere.
    The Philippines and the United States have seen the enemy on our own 
soil. Americans witnessed the murder of thousands on a single day. 
Filipinos have known bombings and kidnaping and brutal murders of the 
innocent. We've endured the violence and grief of terror. We know the 
enemy wants to spread fear and chaos. Our two nations have made our 
choice. We will defend ourselves, our civilization, and the peace of the 
world. We will not be intimidated by the terrorists.
    We're on the offensive against the terrorists, draining their funds, 
disrupting their plans, and bringing them to justice, one person at a 
time. Here in the Philippines, one face of the enemy is the Abu Sayyaf 
group. These killers torture and behead their victims while acting or 
claiming to act in the name of God. But murder has no home in any 
religious faith. And these terrorists must find no home in the 
Philippines.
    My Government and your Government pursue a common objective: We will 
bring Abu Sayyaf to justice. And we will continue to work together, 
along with our friends in Southeast Asia, to dismantle Jemaah Islamiyah, 
the terrorist network, as well as other groups that traffic in violence 
and chaos. As we fight the terrorists, we're also determined to end 
conflicts that spread hopelessness and feed terror.
    The United States supports President Arroyo's campaign to establish 
a lasting peace with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Shortly before 
his death, Ustaz Hashim Salamat wrote a letter to me professing his 
rejection of terrorism. Only that commitment to peace can bring a better 
future to the people in Mindanao.
    I call on all the members of the MILF to reject terror and to move 
forward with political negotiations. When a lasting peace is 
established, the United States is prepared to provide development 
assistance to Mindanao.
    Yet there can be no compromise with terror. Philippine security 
forces have the right and the duty to protect local communities and to 
defeat terrorism in every form. In the war on terror, U.S.-Philippines 
military alliance is a rock of stability in the Pacific.
    And this afternoon, President Arroyo and I agreed to update our 
defense cooperation. We completed the comprehensive review of Philippine 
security requirements announced last May. Today President Arroyo and her 
Government committed to a 5-year plan to modernize and reform your 
military. I commend the President and your military leadership for 
taking this bold action. My country will provide technical assistance 
and field expertise and funding.
    But success requires more than American assistance. The Members of 
this body must invest in the Philippine military to ensure that your 
forces have the resources needed to win the war on terror and to protect 
the Philippine people.
    Free nations have faced a great challenge all around the world and a 
great challenge in Iraq. Saddam Hussein pursued weapons

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of mass destruction, sponsored terrorism, oppressed his people, and for 
12 years defied the demands of the United Nations. Finally, the U.N. 
Security Council in Resolution 1441 demanded that Saddam disarm, prove 
his disarmament to the world, or face serious consequences. Saddam 
Hussein chose defiance, and President Arroyo was one of the first world 
leaders to recognize the need for action. The Philippines joined the 
United States in supporting and enforcing the serious consequences. You 
rose to the moment, and the American people respect your courageous and 
principled stand.
    Since the liberation of Iraq, we have discovered Saddam's 
clandestine network of laboratories suitable for biological and chemical 
weapons research, his design work on prohibited long-range missiles, his 
elaborate campaign to hide his illegal weapons programs. We've shut down 
terror camps, denied terrorists a sanctuary. By our actions, our 
coalition removed a grave and gathering danger. We also ended one of the 
cruelest regimes in our time. Saddam's rape rooms and torture chambers 
and children's prisons are closed forever. His mass graves will claim no 
victims. The world was right to confront the regime of Saddam Hussein, 
and we were right to end the regime of Saddam Hussein.
    Now that the dictator is gone, Americans and Filipinos and many 
others share a common vision for that country. Coalition forces, 
including Filipino peacekeepers and medical workers, are working for the 
rise of freedom and self-government in Iraq. We're helping to build a 
free Iraq, because the long-suffering Iraqi people deserve lives of 
opportunity and dignity. And we're helping to build a free Iraq, because 
free nations do not threaten others or breed the ideologies of murder. 
By working for democracy, we serve the cause of peace.
    Democracy always has skeptics. Some say the culture of the Middle 
East will not sustain the institutions of democracy. The same doubts 
were once expressed about the culture of Asia. These doubts were proven 
wrong nearly six decades ago when the Republic of the Philippines became 
the first democratic nation in Asia. Since then, liberty has reached 
nearly every shore of the western Pacific. In this region of the world 
and in every other, let no one doubt the power of democracy, because 
freedom is the desire of every human heart.
    Sustaining liberty is not always easy. The world saw this last July 
here in the Philippines. And all free nations rejoiced when the mutiny 
against this Government failed. People of this land fought too hard, too 
long to surrender your freedom to the conspiracy of a few.
    All of you in this chamber are the protectors of Philippine 
democracy, charged with upholding the legacy of Rizal and Quezon. 
Members of the Philippine Armed Forces are commissioned to fight for 
freedom, not to contend for power. I'm certain that in the coming 
election, this nation will show its deep commitment to democracy and 
continue to inspire people throughout Asia.
    In this city, on a January morning in 1995, Pope John Paul II 
addressed millions of the faithful. He spoke of the goodness of the 
Filipino people and the strength of your democracy and the example this 
nation has set for others. He said, ``May your light spread out from 
Manila to the farthest corners of the world, like the great light which 
shone in the night at Bethlehem.'' Ladies and gentlemen, the world needs 
the Philippines to continue as a light to all of Asia and beyond.
    There is so much to be proud of in your beloved country, your 
commitments to democracy and peace and your willingness to oppose 
terrorism and tyranny. The United States and the Philippines have a 
proud history. And we face the future bound by the strongest ties two 
nations can share. We stand for liberty, and we stand together.
    May God bless. Thank you all very much.

Note: The President spoke at 4:50 p.m. in the Session Hall at the 
Philippine House of Representatives. In his remarks, he referred to 
Franklin M. Drilon, President, Senate of the Philippines; Jose de 
Venecia, Jr., Speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives; 
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines, and her husband, 
Jose Miguel Arroyo; Ustaz Salamat Hashim, former leader of the Moro 
Islamic Liberation Front; and former President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. A 
portion of these remarks could not be verified because the tape was 
incomplete.

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