MANILA – President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Thursday marked the 108th birth anniversary of his father, the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., with a pledge to defend Filipino dignity and ensure the nation always stands “on the right side of history.”
Speaking at a wreath-laying ceremony, Marcos stressed that honoring the people’s dignity is a duty that transcends politics and generations.
“These are the many, many lessons that… we must maintain always our dignity and we must always respect the dignity of every Filipino. And not only respect the dignity of every Filipino, but we must fight for the dignity of every Filipino,” Marcos said.
He declared that no power or individual should be allowed to demean Filipinos. “We will not allow for any great power, any person, to humiliate or to put down any Filipino. We must also always remember that we must do the right thing – that despite it is – despite the difficulties, we must always find ourselves on the right side of history,” he added.
The President recalled his father’s guidance during his youth. “When he was a young boy, my father always told me to make sure that what you are doing is the right thing no matter how difficult it is,” Marcos said.
He also highlighted the value of personal and national honor: “And another lesson that we learned from him is that we must always maintain our own dignity and the dignity of the country. And we must always continue to sacrifice that– and to remember that sometimes the best thing to do, the most honorable thing to do is the hardest thing that you have to do. But that is a sacrifice that we make and that is the commitment that we have to the service of Filipino people.”
Marcos further called for innovation in governance, rejecting complacency in favor of fresh approaches. “And that is the most important lesson – in that we cannot continue to just do as we refer to it now ‘business as usual,’ just go and continue what has always been done,” he said.
“We must continue to use our skills, our intelligence, our strengths, so that we can find new ways to be of service to the Filipino,” he added./PN
