Remarks of Secretary of Foreign Affairs Alan Peter S. Cayetano at the Exchange of Notes with Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Koji Haneda

VENUE          :           CARLOS P. GARCIA CONFERENCE HALL, DFA     
DATE             :           20 MARCH 2018

Your Excellency Ambassador Haneda, ladies and gentlemen from Davao City and from the national government, members of the media, magandang hapon po! (Good morning!)

(The) Bible tells us that blessed is the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God.

We are grateful to a people that the President has called “a friend more than a brother,” for their patience and their efforts in Mindanao to forge true peace for all Filipinos.

Way back, even in my days in Congress and in the Senate, we would always get reports of the different agencies of Japan that tirelessly work towards peace, sometimes even at the risk of their own citizens. Even when the Japanese Embassy would say, “Please don’t go to these areas,” there would be some members, either of government or NGOs, who would go because they said that peace in the Philippines is worth it.

So Ambassador, today we want to tell you, Thank you!, for these two projects that are, by itself, very big projects but also a big symbol for the whole Mindanao.

We know that we can do this in Davao because the then-Mayor, now President, Duterte and now Mayor Sara Duterte, with the people of Davao, did all they can so that there will be peace and development in Davao. If we can bring that kind of leadership and that kind of peace through the whole Mindanao, you will be seeing us signing more and more agreements towards development projects in the whole Mindanao.

So in behalf of the Filipino people and President Duterte, we would like to thank the Japanese people and Prime Minister Abe. And as the Ambassador said, we’re signing two projects today. But, he told you a little bit about other projects, and, a few days ago, the historic signing of the mega subway. And this will be very important for Filipinos to show the world that we can have these kinds of projects and we can provide the Filipino people with the best.

So we continue to pray for the Japanese people, for the leaders of the Japanese government. And we will do our best on our side to be more aggressive so that these projects will not only multiply but will be finished on time and ahead of time. And the ladies and gentlemen on my right are working very hard, especially on the rehabilitation of Marawi. We know the people there have suffered so much. We thank you, Ambassador, for going there yourself to see first-hand the destruction and what’s happening. And we thank men and women who continue to risk their lives in rebuilding Marawi.

Maraming salamat po sa inyong lahat. (Thank you everyone!)