“Although I was born to famous parents, I know and feel the problems of ordinary citizens.”

I was put into office by the people who believed in my idea that corruption is the root of poverty; that an end to corruption would mean an end to poverty.

I had a simple goal in life: to be true to my parents and our country as an honorable son, a caring brother, and a good citizen.

Peace in the Middle East is of prime importance to the Philippines, due to the presence of around 2 million of our countrymen working in that region.

The Philippines has vast minerals that are still untapped. It has one of the world’s largest deposits of gold, nickel, copper and chromite. Through responsible mining, we intend to generate more revenues from the extraction of these resources.

Tourism is a crucial industry that could employ millions of Filipinos, skilled and unskilled alike, cross those 7,107 islands of the Philippines.

I remove a lot of the pressure from myself by saying I’m not competing with my parents. They are the persons who taught me my ideology. They actively practiced what they preached. They’re the exemplars and the role models. So how does one compete with a mentor?

My father offered his life so our democracy could live. My mother devoted her life to nurturing that democracy.

For every citizen that was robbed, I had failed.

Today, the Iraqi citizen sees that America is coming and wants to occupy his country and kill him, and he is willing to experience for himself what happened in Palestine.

Each citizen contributes to the revenues of the State a portion of his property in order that his tenure of the rest may be secure.

The citizens of America expect more. They deserve and they want more than a recital of problems.

Let each person do his or her part. If one citizen is unwilling to participate, all of us are going to suffer. For the American idea, though it is shared by all of us, is realized in each one of us.

The alms given to a naked man in the street do not fulfil the obligations of the state, which owes to every citizen a certain subsistence, a proper nourishment, convenient clothing, and a kind of life not incompatible with health.

The state is the association of men, and not men themselves; the citizen may perish, and the man remain.

An enlightened citizen is an indispensable ingredient of the infrastructure of democracy.