Philippine Intervention 

delivered by 

FOREIGN AFFAIRS SECRETARY TEODORO L. LOCSIN, JR.

during the 

ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference Session with Japan

03 August 2021

Co-Chairs, Excellencies,

As we meet, dreams are being achieved at the Tokyo Olympics.  The Philippines has captured its first gold medal, after 97 years of trying.  We are giddy for more; but one is enough because our first golden Olympic champion did it on her own,  in the hardest personal circumstances;  If she is a testament it is to the most distinctive thing about being Filipino:  and that is that she is a Filipina.   She stood up like a woman and lifted a weight only a woman dares lift all the way above her head.  And she cried.  Well…that’s the weaker sex for you; they cry when they do the impossible for almost all men before her. The rest is credit grabbing by those not entitled to any. 

I congratulate Japan for its courageous hosting of the Olympics.  More than the spirit of fair play and competition, the Tokyo Olympics is a bravely and expensively lit bright beacon of hope in a post-pandemic future. Some times when everything we try just doesn’t work well enough, we fall back on ourselves; reach into ourselves  and pull out of our hearts the only thing that cannot be taken from us:  defiance to the fate to which we seem condemned.  Thank you, Japan, for showing the way. 

We are not surprised; for the way of warrior now bent to the purposes of friendship and peace works without fail because it depends on courage and the power of the human will.  

We continue to wish for the health and success of all athletes and participants.  

The Tokyo Olympics became a success the moment one runner passed the Olympic torch to another, the one taking getting older, and more feeble with age until one was visibly held up by his waist.  Only the Japanese can portray our last weakness and our final strength because it is not physical but spiritual.   And finally it culminated that the triumph of raw courage over disability when she touched the small torch to the great big one and ignited the fire of hope that was seen throughout the world.  One great power harkens repeatedly to the City on the Hill, a beacon of freedom for all mankind.  Japan lights a torch on the greatest height as if it was Mount Fuji come back to life but snowing hope and goodwill on everyone at home and abroad.   Thank you, Japan, from the bottom of all the world’s hearts. 

I could have talked about Japan’s unstinting generosity, especially to the Philippines not to mention the region.  That she is the biggest donor of Official Development Assistance and the most generous lender of first and last resort.  But the gift she gave to the Philippines, which gave us our first Olympic Gold, is also a gift whose value is infinitely enhanced by having been given to all mankind. The gift of hope, the bounty of courage even when hope seems all but lost. But we can lose everything except honor. Thank you.