October 15, 2003

 

Remarks at the Signing of an MOI On Expanded Access to Quality Education

Legarda Elementary School, Sampaloc, Manila
October 14, 2003

Madame President, Executive Secretary Romulo, members of the cabinet, Secretary Neri, Congressman Bacani, Under Secretaries Hidalgo and Gascon, Assistant Secretaries Ortega and Iribani, Mayor Atienza, Governor Hussin, Vice Governor Mutilan, distinguished guests, Mrs. David and the teachers, parents and children of Legarda School.

Today we initiate three projects in celebration of a century of American-Philippine collaboration in education.

We trace this collaboration back to 1901 when the American volunteer schoolteachers, who came to be known as the “Thomasites,” arrived in Manila to help establish the public school system in the Philippines. They fostered unity and literacy across the diverse archipelago by establishing English as a medium of instruction, and by teaching the values of democracy and citizenship.

This handsome school richly evokes the U.S.-Philippine partnership in education. Built in 1923, the school bears witness to the philanthropy of the heirs of Don Benito Legarda, who donated this parcel of land to the city of Manila.

To recognize and help sustain such private Filipino philanthropy for education, in a few minutes I will present a grant worth $30,000 to Director General Badoy of the National Historical Institute. The grant will help preserve this historic structure and improve its facilities for current needs.

The U.S.- Philippine partnership in education stems from our shared appreciation for the value of education as a springboard to opportunity and the foundation necessary for civil society and democracy to flourish. So it should be no surprise that President Bush has made education both a national priority and a priority in our foreign policy. Last week, Secretary Powell told our AID Mission Directors from around the world, including our own Dr. Michael Yates, that “Education is basic to the fabric of democracy.” National Security Advisor, Dr. Rice, who will visit Manila with President Bush on Saturday, called education “The Great Equalizer.”

I am especially pleased today to join President Macapagal-Arroyo and our distinguished witnesses in marking a new milestone in our traditional partnership in education. Today we are signing a memorandum of our two governments' intent to use $33 million in new American development assistance funds, over 6 years, to improve both the quality of education, and equal access to it. Our shared objective will be to raise education in Mindanao, especially in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao and other conflict-affected areas, up to national standards -- and to raise those standards nationally. This new program also will address the special problems of out-of-school youth in the conflict-affected areas, for education must not stop upon departure from the classroom.

The US Government team implementing this program will include several Embassy components: our Agency for International Development Mission, our Embassy Education and English Language Teaching Office, and our Peace Corps members. We will implement this program in the most intimate cooperation with our Filipino partners in national and local government and in the private and non-profit sectors. Hence I am especially pleased that the RP-US Business Council and the American Chamber of Commerce also are joining us today in contributing to this educational initiative.

We take pride in the fact that our USAID programs deliver results, and quickly. We will witness the first fruits of this education initiative later this month. Teacher trainers from western Mindanao, Cotabato and Marawi City will join an American specialist in English education and U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers for a week-long intensive institute. The participants will jointly design teacher training programs that the Philippine teachers will conduct when they return to their home institutions.

Dear friends, let me take a moment to tell you how we came to be launching this initiative today. President Bush approved both this major increase in American development assistance funding for the Philippines, and our application of this funding to a new program in education, because we listen carefully to Filipinos. And we have been listening all the more carefully since we rediscovered our common suffering at the hands of international terrorism.

We listen to President Macapagal-Arroyo and leading members of the Senate and House of the Philippines Congress, when they declare that fighting poverty is an integral, fundamental component in the Global War on Terrorism. And we listen to Filipino educators, like national Secretary of Education de Jesus and Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao Secretary of Education Mutilan, who tell us that inadequate investment in education is among the roots of poverty and conflict throughout this country, and particularly in the ARMM. We have heard this impassioned message from Governor Hussein, and from Christian and Muslim community leaders throughout Mindanao and throughout this great country.

I should acknowledge that I first heard this moving message from the very first Filipino Muslim official to honor me with a call at our Embassy immediately upon my arrival last year. Department of the Interior and Local Government Assistant Secretary Abraham Iribani deeply impressed me that day, when he related the story of his father’s education by American teachers on the historic Island of Jolo.

Governor Hussein, Secretary Mutilan, Assistant Secretary Iribani, and virtually every Filipino Muslim I have met -- all have recalled to me that the Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, exhorted mankind to “seek learning, even if so far as in China;” and that indeed, the Angel Gabriel’s very first word of God to the Prophet was “Iqra’!” -- “Read!”

The project we are initiating today, then, truly may be called sacred.

Madame President, distinguished witnesses, teachers, parents, and children, it is a distinct honor to join with Secretary Neri to sign this Memorandum of Intent.

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