Good afternoon. I am delighted to be with you today
in my first trip to Davao in almost two years. It is no secret that
Americans love the Philippines and that the Americans in the US Embassy
in Manila particularly love this country. But it is a secret—a
closely guarded one—that we really don’t consider Manila
part of the Philippines. So it is a real delight to come here and
see a real cultural center of the Philippines.
Last week my wife and I sat at a campus similar to this
one, and watched our daughter, Alexis, graduate from high school.
What a horrible experience. Of course, I was proud of my daughter
for graduating, but I am miserably sad that she is abandoning us to
attend college in the United States. There should be a law against
ever leaving one’s parents.
Education in truth has always been something I have
been ambivalent about. When I was a student my favorite quote about
education was from one of my favorite poets, William Blake. I came
across the quote when I was in high school and it became my personal
mantra. He said: “Education is nothing more than a lesson in
conformity.” In his view, education was a tool used by society
to enslave us, as he put it, with “mind-forged manacles.”
Thirty years later I have concluded that Blake was too
harsh in this assessment. More recently I have come across another
quote about education that conflicts with Blake’s view. It is
from Thomas Jefferson who wrote: “Every government degenerates
when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves,
therefore, are its only safe depositors. And to render even them safe,
their minds must be improved” by education". If a nation
expects to be ignorant and free,… it expects what never was
and never can be.”
Many of you here today are parents and are working hard
so that your children will have an opportunity to study at a university
in the Philippines or abroad. Indeed, in both of my tours to the Philippines,
in the 1980s and now, I have been impressed by the high value that
Filipinos place on education. And, after having spent most of my career
in the Middle East, it is a genuine delight to be part of a society
in which the participation of women in higher education is encouraged
and respected.
How can the Philippines improve its educational resources,
in order to create more opportunities for its young people? It already
sits on an under-utilized resource – the use of the English
language, the international language of business. It is important
that the Philippines maintains this asset by continuing to invest
in and improve its English language education. When I last lived in
the Philippines 20 years ago, the English language was more pervasive
and far better spoken than it is today. There has been an erosion
in this precious commodity and that has been detrimental to the Philippines
in competing against other countries in this region.
Moreover, statistics show that per capita, per student,
expenditures on education have not kept up with that of your neighbors.
This is troubling since, as with learning the English language, other
educational skills are an important investment in your future.
However, the national government should not bear the
sole burden of financing public education. Parents, students, faculty,
politicians and employers share a vested interest in promoting quality
education in Mindanao. That is why this gathering is a community meeting,
not solely an academic one.
The U.S. Embassy is also working hand-in-hand with Filipinos
to improve education in Mindanao. Since the first American teachers
traveled to the Philippines in 1901 to help establish your system
of public schools, the U.S. government has remained committed to strengthening
the education system in the Philippines.
Why are we so committed to education? A simple anecdote
may help explain our commitment. A few months ago I took part in a
short ceremony at the Dept of Education during which the Embassy witnessed
the handing over of 25,000 books to the Philippines. I noted in my
remarks that day that coincidentally we had just given about the same
number of rifles to the Philippines a few months earlier.
The easy, trite question that immediate sprang to mind
was: which is more important, the 25,000 books or the 25,000 rifles?
But I think we get to a better, clearer understanding of the issue
if we ask a different question: Not which is better – the books
or the rifles -- but which is more dangerous? Then the answer is obvious:
the books. Far more dangerous.
To demonstrate this we need look no further than Philippine
history. The Spanish did not execute Jose Rizal for carrying a rifle;
they killed him because he wrote a book. Whenever any tyrant comes
to power, the first thing he does is not confiscate the guns. It is
the books that he wants to control, and the other means of education
and communication. The guns pose a far less lethal threat to dictatorship.
Even our own American experience here in the Philippines
demonstrates the power and danger of education. As I already mentioned,
a year after taking over the Philippines we sent hundreds of teachers
here on the U.S.S. Thomas. These Thomasite teachers quickly founded
schools all over the Philippines.
In my view, as soon as the Thomas anchored, the destruction
of American power and control of the Philippines was preordained.
It was inevitable once we chose to allow – indeed, help and
support – education in the Philippines that we could not long
remain in control of these islands. We in a sense planted the seeds
of education and in planting those seeds ensured a harvest of freedom
and an understandable disdain among Filipinos for their conquerors.
Today, my colleagues and I at the U.S. Mission continue
this subversive work side by side with the Philippine Department of
Education, the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), non-governmental
organizations, and educational institutions, such as Ateneo de Davao,
to reach out to community groups and improve educational opportunities
for young people in the Philippines.
In October 2003, the U.S. Government launched a new
education program in the Philippines to address the political, economic,
and social marginalization of Muslim and other conflict-affected communities
in Mindanao. In fact, USAID will build on and expand education activities
already taking place in Mindanao under its long-standing Growth with
Equity in Mindanao (GEM-2) Program. Begun last year, the focus of
the GEM-2 education program is on reducing the difference in education
opportunities in Mindanao, improving linkages between school and the
business community and parent groups; strengthening English language
training, and increasing Internet access for ARMM students.
USAID will implement this new effort with significant
collaboration from our Public Affairs Section and the Peace Corps,
which already has 65 volunteers dedicated to improving education in
the Philippines. The Public Affairs Section, for its part, has developed
“training the trainers” institutes under its Mindanao
English Language Education Enhancement Project (MELEEP).
By targeting assistance where the need is greatest,
we aim to reinvigorate communities, help promote healing, and ultimately
support sustainable peace in the Philippines.
I would also like to draw attention to our longstanding
efforts to supplement educational resources in the provinces, by developing
a strong network of American Studies Resource Centers, or American
Corners, across the Philippines.
For example, Ateneo de Davao’s American Studies
Resource Center, also known as the American Library, was first established
in 1992. We encourage you to think of the ASRCs not just as libraries,
but as an American Corner, a piece of the United States available
to all members of the community of Davao.
Whether you are a journalist looking for information
for a story or a mayor searching for a copy of the latest Human Rights
Report, the ASRC should be your first stop for information on the
United States.
For those interested in American culture, institutions
and society, the ASRC houses a special collection of books, periodicals,
maps, multimedia, and other materials. It also has an advising center
that provides information on standardized tests, assists students
in choosing universities, and offers assistance with applications
necessary to enter American universities. I wish I had sent my daughter
to one to get guidance on how to fill out those damnably complicated
college applications.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to announce
that we are creating a special U.S. consulate in Davao, with an expected
inaugural date of October 2004.
This consulate will be highly unusual. It will have
no people. It will have no building. But we will be here to work with
the people of Davao and to serve your community.
We are launching a cutting edge project in Davao called,
“the virtual consulate.” I have no idea what they really
mean by this. I suspect it is kind of like the U.S. Embassy meets
“The Matrix!” But I am told to assure you that the human
touch will never disappear from our activities. But we do hope to
combine the use of new communication technologies with traditional
outreach programs to increase our relationships with groups here.
The virtual consulate will not be just a website, although
we are hoping to build a website with lots of Davao content, including
links to the ASRC. Our vision is to make the virtual consulate the
point of contact for answering general questions and to allow us to
engage in a dialogue with the citizens of Mindanao without their having
to travel to Manila.
We will also be assigning a Virtual Principal Officer
- an American diplomat at the US Embassy in Manila. Part of his/her
responsibilities would be to coordinate all US Government activities
in Davao. This would include both the online/electronic interactions
between the virtual consulate and any interested parties, as well
as all travel and physical engagement by the US Government in Davao.
We want to ensure that you know that America is represented
in Davao, America cares and America is here. The Virtual Consulate
will be a big step to achieve that objective. But I can also assure
you that trips to Davao are highly prized by our Embassy staff, so
we will not be going away any time soon.
We have a highly capable staff here at the ASRC in Ateneo,
and our staff at the Thomas Jefferson Information Center at the U.S.
Embassy in Manila works very closely with them to constantly improve
the services they offer to the community. So I leave you in very good
hands. Before we tour the American Library, I’d be delighted
to take your questions. Thank you.
