Speech

of
Her Excellency Corazon C. Aquino
President of the Philippines
At the First International Festival on Indigenous and Traditional Cultures

[Delivered at the PICC, November 23, 1988]

CULTURE AND NATIONAL IDENTITY

Culture forms the core of Philippine identity, it unifies a race, gives it a national
identity and makes one proud to be a citizen of one’s own country. The President
calls on the Philippine artists to lend our people in forging unity and peace
through culture. She hopes that the festival will usher in a decade of promotion of
international cultural cooperation among the representatives of ethnic tribes all
over the world.

I am deeply pleased to welcome all of you who represent ethnic tribes from all over the
world to the Philippines. It is our singular honor to host this First International Festival on
Indigenous and Traditional Cultures which ushers in the United Nations — proclaimed
World Decade of Cultural Development for the period 1988-1997. Incidentally, this
coincides with our own Philippine Decade of Nationalism.

The other day, I rendered a report to the Filipino people on my one thousand days in
office. I stressed the fact that I considered the ratification of a new Constitution by over
70% of our people as pivotal to our efforts to restore the democratic institutions which
were lost during the dictatorial regime.

Given importance in this Charter are the rights of some ten million Filipinos belonging to
about 110 ethnic tribes.

Very explicitly, the State is mandated to “recognize, respect, and protect the rights of
indigenous cultural communities to preserve and develop their cultures, traditions, and
institutions. It shall consider these rights in the formulation of national plans and
policies.”

And because basic to their survival is their rights over their ancestral lands, the State is
further bound to “protect the rights of indigenous cultural communities to their ancestral
lands to ensure their economic, social and cultural well-being.”

The government has created three offices to address the needs of the cultural
minorities: the Office of the Northern Cultural Minorities, the Office of the Southern
Cultural Minorities and the Office of Muslim Affairs.
Through these agencies, we seek to preserve the identities of the individual tribes and
protect their rights. For as each nation progresses, there is a real danger of the cultural
groups being swallowed up.

Let me cite to you a concrete illustration of how an ethnic tribe’s identity was all but lost
in the cross-currents of media hype and scholars’ unscholarly posturings. First brought
to modern men’s awareness in the early ’70s, the tiny Tasaday tribe of South Cotabato
in Mindanao was given full exposure in the prestigious National Geographic Magazine.
For apparently materialistic motives and to open the group’s 19,000 hectares of rich
agricultural and timber ancestral lands for exploitation, some scholars with media
support denounced the existence of the tribe as a hoax. With the integrity of the
discoverers and the concerned government agency at stake, Congress had to launch its
own investigation through its Committee on National Cultural Communities. Many
extended hearings later, the Committee confirmed that the Tasaday tribe is indeed a
genuine and separate tribal group.

If I have taken pains to narrate to you the story of a tribe that was almost wiped out of
existence by the inroads of present-day manipulations, it is merely to underscore the
need for vigilance on the part of governments to keep intact their traditional cultures.

The survival and preservation of the identities of ethnic minorities in any country can
only enrich a country’s culture. I am sure that, in your own countries, culture also brings
you together, gives you a national identity, makes you proud to be a citizen of your own
country. That is what culture does in my country. It forms the core of Philippine identity.
It makes us one. It makes us what we are, as a people, as a nation.

That is why, more than a year ago, I personally asked Philippine artists to get involved
in the project that has resulted in this international conference and festival, I said then,
as I say again now, that artists must lead our people in forging unity and peace through
culture.

I was sure then that, with the help of Philippine artists, particularly those from the private
sector, the Philippine government would be able to fulfill its commitment to the
International Theatre Institute and to the United Nations when we first invited you to
come to Manila to have this conference and festival.

The United Nations and UNESCO launched this Decade for Cultural Development
because they realized that culture and development are inseparable. A nation, all
nations, for that matter, cannot develop if culture does not develop. A world without
culture is a retarded, a stunted world. Culture is a key to development. The
development of culture is itself a major step towards all other forms of development —
political, social, economic, spiritual, intellectual.

We are aware of the delicate balance between national unity and cultural diversity.
Sometimes, nations tend to encourage uniformity, rather than unity. This tendency is
understandable, in the light of what are sometimes perceived as more immediate
 political or security problems. But we in the Philippines believe that cultural unity can be
and should be achieved within the framework of cultural diversity. And with a healthy
respect for each other’s cultural traditions.

It is good to know that there are more things that unite us than there are things that
separate us. We all seek answers to the same questions. We all share the same
problems crucial to our cultural survival and integrity. We all know that we can achieve
national peace, even international peace, only if we learn to live with each other. To
respect each other. To understand and to love each other. This is what it means to live
and operate in a global village.

Now this conference and festival will usher in a decade that will achieve many things.
Among them, the acknowledgment and enhancement of the cultural dimensions of
development, the affirmation of cultural identities, the broadening of public and private
participation in cultural life and the promotion of international cultural cooperation.

You are familiar with these goals of the decade. And I have no doubt that you will make
them more concrete as you address issues and concerns that affect cultural
development around the world.

I am also elated that you are showcasing new kinds of artistic expression inspired by
the wealth of our ancestral roots. Your creative interaction with each other and with
each other’s traditions, your explorations and discoveries in the workshops, exhibits,
performances, and film showings during this event will surely reaffirm our common
humanity. This is our investment in building one peaceful world.

I wish to commend the UN, the UNESCO, the organizers and the non-governmental
organizations which made this first-of-a-kind event possible. Their efforts will go a long
way in ensuring unity among and within nations even as the rich legacy of diverse
indigenous cultures are preserved for the ages.

Thank you and good day.

Source: Presidential Museum and Library

Aquino, C. C. (1988). Speeches of President Corazon C. Aquino : June – December 1988.

[Manila : Office of the President of the Philippines].