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Their Excellencies, special envoys and heads of delegations



His Excellency most reverend Charles John Brown and the esteemed members of the diplomatic corps,


Vice President Sara Duterte,


President Fidel Ramos,


President Joseph Ejercito Estrada,


President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,


Senate President Vicente Sotto III and the honorable members of the Philippine Senate,


House Speaker Lord Allan Jay Velasco and the honorable members of the House of Representatives,


Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo and the honorable justices of the Supreme Court,


First Lady Liza Araneta, and my children, Alexander "Sandro", Simon, and Vincent,


I could not proceed without a special greeting of course to the former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos,


Other distinguished guests,


Ladies and gentlemen,


My friends,


My beloved countrymen,


A good afternoon to all!


This is a historic moment for us all. I feel it deep within me. You, the people have spoken and it is resounding. When my call for unity started to resonate with you, it did so because it echoed your yearning, mirrored your sentiments, and expressed your hopes for family, for country and for a better future. That is why it reverberated and amplified as it did, to deliver the biggest electoral mandate in the history of Philippine democracy.


By your vote, you rejected the politics of division. I offended none of my rivals in this campaign. I listened instead to what they were saying and I saw little incompatibility with my own ideas about jobs, fair wages, personal safety and national strength and ending want in a land of plenty.


I believe that if we focus on the work at hand, and the work that will come to hand, we will go very far under my watch. You believe that too. And I listened to your voices who are calling for unity, unity and unity. We will go further together than against each other, pushing forward not pulling each other back out of fear, out of a misplaced sense of weakness. But we are the furthest from weak. The Filipino diaspora flourishes even in the most inhospitable climes, where they are valued for their quality. The changes we shape will benefit all and will shortchange no one. I was not the instrument of change, you were that. You made it happen. I am now.

You picked me to be your servant to enable changes to benefit all. I fully understand the gravity of the responsibility that you've put on my shoulders. I do not take it lightly but I'm ready for the task. I will need your help. I want to rely on it but rest assured I do not predicate success on the wide cooperation that's needed. I will get it done.


I once knew a man who saw what little had been achieved since independence in a land filled with people with the greatest potential for achievement, and yet they were poor. But he got it done. Sometimes, with the needed support. Sometimes, without. So, will it be with his son. You will get no excuses from me.


I am here not to talk about the past. I am here to tell you about our future. A future of sufficiency, even plenty of readily available ways and means to get done what needs doing – by you, by me. We do not look back, but ahead. Up the road that we must take to a place better than the one we lost in the pandemic. Gains made and lost. Opportunities missed. Well-laid plans superseded by the pandemic. Indeed, ours was the fastest growing economy in the ASEAN byways now outdated. We shall be again, by radical change in the way the world must now work to recover what we lost in that fire, and move on from there.


We face prospects of the war abroad of which we are totally blameless. We seek friendship with all. But countries like ours will bear the brunt of it. And if the great powers draw the wrong lessons from the ongoing tragedy in Ukraine, the same dark prospect of conflict will spread to our part of the world.


Yet there is more out there. Like going forward by new ways of doing, that the pandemic forces to adopt, a stronger resilience, quicker adaptability. They are our best prevention, they are our best protection. Quiet reflection in a rough and tumbled campaign of a breadth and intensity never experienced reveal some of them. Such as the willingness to listen despite the noise, the hesitation to quarrel over differences and to never ever give up hope of reconciliation. These gave me the piece to ponder deeper. There are hints of a road not taken that could get us out of here quicker, to something better, something less fragile. There is also what you the people did to cope but this time empowered by new techniques and more resources. You got by, getting some of what you needed with a massive government help. And for this I thank my predecessor for the courage of his hard decisions. But there is a way to put more means and choices in your hands. I trust the Filipino.


Imagine how much more you'd achieve, if the government backstops instead of dictating your decisions. Always there to pick you up when you fall. Giving what you need to get past a problem. Imagine if it invested in your self empowerment to bring it closer to taking on whatever challenges come. Imagine, a country that in almost every sense is you. Now imagine what you and the government can achieve together. We did it in the pandemic and we will do it again.


But again, I will not predicate my promise to you on your cooperation. You have your own lives to live. Your work to do and there too I will help. Government will get as much done alone without requiring more from you. That is what government and public officials are for. No excuses. Just deliver. It was like that, once upon a time.


I did not talk much in this campaign. I did not bother to think of rebutting my rivals. Instead, I searched for promising approaches better than the usual solutions. I listened to you. I did not lecture you who has the biggest stake in our success and the forthcoming State of the Nation will tell you exactly how we shall get this done.


In this fresh chapter of our history, I extend my hand to all Filipinos. Come, let us put our shoulders to the wheel and give that wheel a faster turn to repair and to rebuild and to address challenges in new ways to provide what all Filipinos need to be all that we can. We are here to repair a house divided, to make it whole and to stand strong again in the bayanihan way, expressive of our nature as Filipinos. We shall seek, not scorn dialogue, listen respectfully to contrary views, be open to suggestions coming from hard thinking and unsparing judgment but always from us, Filipinos. We can trust no one else when it comes to what is best for us. Past history has often proven that.


Solutions from outside divided us, none deepened our understanding. They were always at our expense. Never forget, we are Filipinos, one nation, one republic indivisible. We resisted and never failed to defeat foreign attempts to break our country in my father's watch. His strongest critics have conceded that. So let us all be part of the solution that we choose. In that lies the power to get it done, always be open to differing views but ever united in our chosen goal. Never hesitating to change it should it prove one thing. That is how agile and resilient republics are made. Our future we decide today, yesterday cannot make that decision anymore, nor can tomorrow delay it. The sooner we start, the surer and quicker the prospect of achieving our future.


These are troubling times, what's happening to others can happen to us but it will not. We see what is happening. We are witness to how it is being stopped and we have seen the glory that crowns struggle against all odds. Giving up is not an option. We've been through times of bitter division but united. We came through to this when it shall begin again but better.

Full text of the inaugural speech of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivered on Thursday, June 30, 2022