Transcript of U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone’s remarks
at the launching of the Education and Livelihood Skills Alliance (ELSA)
at the Filipinas Heritage Library, Ayala Triangle, Makati City
February 2, 2005

Undersecretary Hidalgo; Undersecretary Boransing; Dr. Cinches; Governor Parouk Hussin; Mr. Zobel de Ayala; ELSA Partners; distinguished guests; colleagues, members of the media, friends:

Magandang hapon sa inyong lahat! Assallamu Allaikum! And may peace be upon all of us.

And it is true, as Fe said, I am a former teacher, and I do not miss any opportunity to celebrate and advance the enterprise that we’re together celebrating here today.

It’s a special pleasure to join you in the launching of the Education and Livelihood Skills Alliance project, or ELSA. We are dedicating ourselves today to improving access to quality education, and to providing livelihood and business skills training for out-of-school youth in Mindanao. ELSA is just one of six U.S. Government-backed education alliances with the private sector in the Philippines. ELSA and the others exemplify the vital role that the corporate world and civil society can play in working with the government to bring development, peace and knowledge, and indeed a much-needed revolution to conflict-affected regions of the Philippines.

The Philippines-U.S. collaboration in education began over a century ago, in 1901, when, as Filipinos all know, and not many Americans know – American volunteer schoolteachers, who called themselves the “Thomasites,” arrived in Manila on what today we might even call a kind of Jihad. I would call it a Jihad, really, to establish quality public education and universal literacy. For the light of public education in the Philippines has helped foster national unity, democracy, and prosperity across this diverse archipelago, and it has opened young minds to the world outside their villages and provinces. In Mindanao, the Thomasites found an especially eager constituency for education. This should have been no surprise, for Muslims know and cherish that the very first word of God to the Prophet (may peace be upon him!), through the Angel Gabriel, was “Iqra’,” or “Read!”

As a result of the visit to Manila of the “Education President,” as we fondly call George W. Bush, and of his librarian spouse, Laura Bush, in 2003, USAID has resumed the Thomasite tradition, by putting education back into our portfolio of development assistance programs in this wonderful country.

Our two Presidents agreed that rebuilding the quality of public education is a fundamental requirement to unleash the talents and the ambitions of all Filipinos in today’s global economy. And universal access to quality education is no less essential to strengthen democracy and to combat terrorism and the other crimes that so afflict many Filipinos. Universal access to quality public education also is indispensable to end the discrimination and the injustice suffered for so long, not just by Filipino Muslims, but also by other non-Catholic indigenous peoples, and poor Filipinos of all religions and ethnicities.

Hence, our support in education focuses on improving opportunities in the conflict-affected areas of Mindanao, and the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in particular. A better-educated workforce will help to attract increased investment and create new jobs. And better and more accessible education will also help Mindanao’s citizens to participate more fully in the national, regional, and global economies; and simply to take charge of their destinies. Thus will quality education empower the young to right the injustices of history, and to seize the future. For education truly liberates, while ignorance oppresses and enslaves.

ELSA will strengthen education by improving school infrastructure and enriching the curriculum. It will also provide new opportunities for youth, including those who have dropped out of school, by establishing training centers, providing on-the-job training, and by matching skills with industry needs.

I congratulate the ELSA partners, and the teacher and student beneficiaries, as we together begin this ground-breaking project. As we do so, we are again heeding the advice of the Prophet Mohammed when he said, “Utlubu al-‘ilm, walla fil-Sin.” Which is: “Seek knowledge, even if you must go as far as China.” . . . Or to the Philippines, or Mindanao!

As-Salaam Wa Aleikum, wa rahmat Ullahi wa ta’ala wa barakatuh! Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat, at mabuhay!

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