Speech

of
His Excellency Ferdinand E. Marcos
President of the Philippines
At the inauguration of General Santos City and the inauguration of the Home
Economics and Marcos Building

[Delivered in Tacurong, Cotabato, September 5, 1968]

THE SPIRIT OF INTEGRATION

I am supposed to deliver the inauguration speech to inform everybody that General

Santos is now a city.

I hereby declare, as President of the Republic of the Philippines, that as of today, the
new city of General Santos has been organized and will operate as such, a chartered
city of the Republic of the Philippines.

I congratulate all those who have anything to do with the progress of this city. When I
first came here as a young man way back in 1940, and then immediately after the war,
this place was just a small village. This was a one-road town, but now we have a city—a
big, progressive bustling city. Who would ever imagine that these big buildings here
today could have been put up within such a short period of time? This is, indeed, a
monument to the energy, enthusiasm and dedication of your leaders and of the men
who poured their sweat and energy into the building of this town.

But the building of this town and this city was not the work of the leaders alone. Mostly it
was the work of the people who are here, and may I say it was the work of Christian,
Muslim and other minorities. This is what I want to emphasize today.

All over the country, we again hear the alarm signals being raised, calling attention to
one fact, and that is—that there is a fear that the two cultures, Christian and Muslim
cannot co-exist. I wish to emphasize that General Santos is the creation of a community
of Filipinos, Muslims and Christians working in mutual partnership for a mutual goal.

Rumors of Disunity

There appeared some time ago, in the press and radio and other media, news to the
effect that Muslims and Christians are engaged in killing each other here. The reports,
however, were not true. But while it was false and irresponsible, for some time, the
entire nation came face to face once again with that old fear: regional strife among
people of different creeds. Briefly, we seemed to find in it ample evidence of the so
called “Muslim separatist movement” brewing allegedly in some of the towns of
Mindanao. Since then all of these moves have been denied. And finally, our government
—from the Presidency to the Congress down to the smallest local government—had to

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face again the old query: Is it the government of all Filipinos? And if it is, who are the
Filipinos?

These seem in retrospect very tired and cliche-ridden questions, but if we look at them
in the context of the rumored discontent and disunity that provoked them, they seem,
indeed, imperative and important questions. They strike at the very foundation of this
land we call our country, and we are suddenly reminded, as if in shock, that some of our
brother Filipinos may in fact have stopped to call it their own.

And so the problem, that you, the first settlers faced in 1939 is still with us. We have
recognized the necessity of making community with the members of the cultural
minorities in the task of nation-building. But somewhere in our experience, our plans
exceeded or did not measure up to the achievements of the past.

And so today, we must confront this unfinished business, not so much because there
are rumors of disunity, but more important because we really have to bring down those
walls that divided us Muslims and Christians in the past.

The Way of Integration

The answer is oneness, “integration.” But what do we mean by integration in the context
of our times?

Integration implies, I believe, a union. To integrate is to join two disparate things, such
that when they are joined they compose a new whole, without either of the two losing
identity in the union. In the context of cultures, integration means the participation of
disparate cultures and cultural groups in the making of one body politic, without one
culture being subjugated or subsumed or assimilated by any other.

The union in the case of a nation, I suggest is a political one. It means the molding of
nation from those cultural groups which inhabit its boundaries of space. The fact that
one group will be more numerous than the others is circumstantial and has no bearing
whatsoever on the rights that it may derive from the nation so formed.

Relating these principles to our own nation, it is not difficult to see how the making of
the body politic of this country cannot be simply the concern of the larger Christian
majority. Neither can it be simply the concern of the Muslim minority or of those other
minority groups who continue to live among us, but sometimes sadly apart and
destitute.

Nation-building must be the concern of all, if this nation is to be the creation of all of us
—and I say to you now it still has to be the creation of all of us, of Muslims and
Christians alike.

And to my Muslim brothers, therefore, today, I am pleased to announce that under my

administration, the Muslim shall be the brother of the Christian and the Muslim shall

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 have rights equal and similar to the Christian under this government. And thus both
Muslim and Christian brothers can work for the transformation of our society and our
government to become true instruments of progress.

Yes, there are many things lacking in our country as yet. We lack funds, we lack trained
personnel, we lack sometimes leadership and often there is a lack of a dialogue,
communication between the people and their leaders. I now try to bring about this
dialogue, this communication.

I have travelled the country far and wide, and I can see that all these fears that have
been expressed through the mass media—through the newspapers and through the
radio and television, are mostly exaggerated. Muslim and Christian brothers live
together and we have the assurances of the leaders of Northern Cotabato and other
provinces that they live together peacefully and progressively.

I appeal to all of you now, to all the people of Mindanao and Sulu and Palawan, and all
the areas wherein the cultural minorities live, under the Republic of the Philippines you
are one, you are united, you are a people with one single objective and that is the
progress of the Republic of the Philippines.

If there be any grievance, tell us. I have authorized the Bureau of Telecommunications
to receive your complaints, Muslims and Christians, and relay them in telegrams
addressed to me. All you have to do is pay 10 centavos and that telegram will reach me.
If there is any grievance, don’t take the law into your own hands. There is a law that we
shall impose. If your rights have been denied, they shall be restored to you. I shall see
to it that they are, and if, not as you see often in the workings of our judicial system, it
takes a long time, let me know if the delay is unjustified and unreasonable and I shall
exert the powers of the Presidency in order that his delay is cut short and justice shall
be granted you immediately.

And now, ladies and gentlemen of General Santos, I congratulate you again. Taos-puso
kong binabati and lahat ng tumulong rito sa lungsod ng General Santos. I am happy to
be here.

Maraming salamat sa inyo, congratulations to all of you. Good day and God bless all of
you. Thank you.

Source: National Library of the Philippines

Marcos, F. E. (1968). Speech at the inauguration of General Santos City and the inauguration
of the Home Economics and Marcos Building in Tacurong, Cotabato, September 5,
1968. Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, 64(39), 9776-A-9776-C.

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