REMARKS BY
AMBASSADOR FRANCIS RICCIARDONE
AT THE
INAUGURATION OF THE VMMC DIALYSIS CENTER
APRIL 11, 2003

Thank you Doctor Macaraeg. USEC Batenga, Father Paredes, Doctor Casison, honored veterans, dedicated medical professionals of the VMMC, distinguished guests:

Magandang umaga sa inyong lahat.

Kumusta?

It's wonderful to be in a place where "How are you" is not just a polite greeting, but a technical question at the heart of your business. That business is love, caring, and compassion, and I feel a deeply personal connection to you and your work. For, not only is my father a veteran of WWII in the Pacific -- but also, my late mother was a nurse, who once served at a veterans' hospital in Boston. And, I'm from a medical family. My wife was a nurse. One of my sisters, and her husband, are both physicians. And one of my brothers is a nuclear medicine technician.

So I know and deeply appreciate what you of the staff of the VMMC do all day. You are not paid enough, but you go home, however tired at the end of long days and nights, with the satisfaction that you have made the world a better place. I salute you all.

I can think of no more fitting way to cap the commemoration of Veterans’ Week, 2003 in the Philippines -- a week of historic advance in humanity’s global struggle for peace, security, and freedom -- than to witness the VMMC’s inauguration today of one of the largest, state-of-the-art Dialysis Centers in the Philippines.

One year ago, United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi reaffirmed to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Congressman Gordon, and the leaders of the Filipino veterans’ organizations our pledge to do all we can to assist Filipino WWII veterans. Secretary Principi was particularly moved at their need for quality health care, especially during this crucial stage in the lives of our WWII veterans. Because so many suffer from kidney disease, the Philippines VMMC and the USDVA together determined that providing equipment for this center would be our top priority.

In just its first few months, the Center has changed the lives of twenty-one new patients. It has increased treatments by 41%. This means that patients no longer must wait on a long list for the care they desperately need and richly deserve.

I am also proud to report that, while the Dialysis Center represents our initial effort in the main focus of caring for those with kidney disease, we have also provided equipment to care for Filipino veterans suffering from other life-threatening ills. Such additional equipment includes defibrillators, ventilators, and cardiac monitors. In all, just since Secretary Principi’s visit, the United States has provided VMMC a total of $1 million in medical equipment. We hope to continue and expand this program in the future, so that Filipino veterans and their dependents can receive the first-class medical care that they deserve.

The continuing services and upgrading of facilities such as the VMMC Dialysis Center do not just happen by themselves. At a time when both the Governments of the United States and of the Republic of the Philippines face severe deficits, continuing vital services to our people takes the heroic efforts and sacrifices of dedicated people, not faceless bureaucrats or distant institutions.

While so many have contributed to the opening of this wonderful new center today, I will cite just two of the principal Filipino medical leaders, who represent their many dedicated colleagues of the VMMC: Thank you, Dr. Casison and Dr. Macaraeg, for your leadership and for the team that stands behind you, in making this new Dialysis center a reality. I would also like to recognize Bill Williams and Tina Estember of our Embassy's Veterans Affairs office for their dedication in administering this equipment program.

The friendship that Americans and Filipinos share today -- and the bonds between our veterans of WWII -- are a living testament to the alliance our countries forged so many years ago in overcoming tyranny. Today, Presidents Macapagal-Arroyo and Bush have renewed our alliance against tyranny and terror. Once again, Filipinos and Americans -- joining with the people of four dozen other nations -- have stood together so that another people in a far away land can rejoin the community of nations living in freedom. Our peoples and governments have taken up that cause even when some voices stridently proclaimed that there was no national interest in standing against a tyrant in a distant land -- even one condemned by the United Nations for having used his country’s wealth and its scientists not to provide medicines for his people, but to develop poisons for murder and the machinery of oppression.

We will not forget that at a moment of great worldwide debate, in a time of global war against terrorism and an international coalition against weapons of terror and the rule of fear, the President of the Republic of the Philippines has upheld the true values of today’s generation of the Filipino people. These are the values that you veterans of our fathers’ generation have passed on to us, and in whose defense many of your comrades fell. Our generation owes yours not only the best medical care, but also fidelity to your defense of freedom. We will keep your faith in this cause, for you, for us, and for our own children.

Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat, at mabuhay!

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