As a country in the path of typhoons and in the Pacific Rim of Fire, we must be prepared as the latest technology permits to anticipate natural calamities when that is possible, to extend immediate and effective relief when it is not.
As your president, I care too much about this nation to let anyone stand in the way of our people's wellbeing.
I can't do everything alone. I need all Filipinos to unify.
The Constitution says that troops can be in the Philippines if there's a treaty that provides for it, and we have two treaties with the United States.
On the economy, the U.S. cumulatively is our most important investor, most important trading partner, most important sort of tourists, and we have now a tie that will... a link that will be here for many, many years to come, and that is the big Philippine-American community in the United States - three million of them.
Nature did not gift us with a mighty Mekong like Thailand and Vietnam, with their vast and naturally fertile plains. Nature instead put our islands ahead of our neighbours in the path of typhoons from the Pacific.