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data-pin-description="Outgoing president Diodado Macapagal's address delivered on the night of December 29, 1965 over television and radio. President-elect Ferdinand Marcos was sworn in the following day." 
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(President-elect Ferdinand E. Marcos chats with Macapagal, in the Music Room, just before they depart for the Quirino Grandstand for the Marcos inauguration)
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<p>
<b>TOMORROW</b> we shall have a new President. On the occasion of his proclamation, I expressed a prayer for the success of the Marcos administration and for the cooperation and unity that he would need. 
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<p>
On my relinquishment of the Presidency and the inauguration of the new President, it might be of moment to point out what, from my experience and observations, are some of the important pitfalls that affect the success or failure of a President. 
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<p>
One pitfall is the isolation of a President from the people and from reality by a cordon of persons who will continually seek to please him and influence his decisions in the guise of promoting his success but in many cases promoting their own interests. A President needs his best judgment in choosing his advisers, assistants, and intimates on the basis of an efficient administration and what is best for the people. 
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<p>
Another is the tremendous temptation of graft and corruption that confronts a President. A President should steel himself against participating in graft and tolerating it, particularly by any member of his family. It is for this reason that I considered as one of the lasting reform measures of my administration my successful resolve and endeavoi to promote the tradition of an honest presidential family, -not just the President being honest and faithful to his sacred trust but also his wife, children, brothers, and sisters. 
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<p>
The third is the difficult choice between the decisions of a statesman and of a politician. A President should decide primarily on what is good for the people, irrespective of political consequences, and secondarily only on considerations of his political position. He is called upon to tackle the basic problems of the country from the long-range view of lasting solutions and not merely on the basis of easing the symptomatic and current difficulties. 
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<p>
The fourth involves the necessity for an awareness of the preponderant power of powerful and entrenched interests in our society which has created social injustice and prevented the equalization of opportunities for the attainment of a better life by the greatest number and the consequent obstructive effect on the national progress. A President may be resigned to being helpless before this awesome power and consequently contribute to the maintenance of the status quo, or may take  risks to effectively give opportunities for a better life to the greatest number by undertaking to influence the powerful and entrenched interests into relaxing or giving up part of their privilege of monopoly and dominant power for the sake of the general welfare. 
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<p>
The fifth concerns the need to possess a genuine recognition that the basic national problem being the agelong poverty of the masses, the alleviation of the plight of the common people must be given authentic emphasis. A President who is not guided by an adequate social orientation toward justice to the underprivileged may be handicapped in effectively meeting the challenge of the presidency in our time. 
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<p>
The sixth is an impulse to readily use the presidential power without proper regard for the rule of law. Power is never to be used for its own sake. The virtue of power lies in i ts being used merely as a means for service. A President who is moved not by a consciousness of power but by a sense of duty is a blessing to the people. 
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<p>
The seventh is a choice of attitude towards criticism,-whether to be tolerant about it or out of a sense of power to cow, suppress, or corrupt it by one means or another. 
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<p>
The eighth relates to the possession of an attitude to accept fully the giving up of power at the end of the presidential term as adjudged by the people and to resist the opiate effect of power or vanity for its perpetuation. It is incumbent on every President of the Philippines to bear in mind at all times that in a democracy the exercise of power under the Constitution is inevitably for a limited period and, therefore no thought should ever be entertained by a President to keep himself in power over the will of the people through the use of a segment of the physical forces of the state. 
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<p>
A correct course of action on these pitfalls of the presidency will contribute to the success or even greatness of a President. I repeat now the prayer, which I believe is tne prayer of our people, that for the sake of our country, the new Administration will be a success. 
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President Macapagal on the "Pitfalls" of the Presidency