My life has been devoted to the upliftment of the Filipino by reestablishing his identity and dignity.
— Ferdinand Marcos
So long as I'm president, communism will not thrive here.
My friends in the opposition have forgotten that the constitution of the Philippines was amended in 1973 with their participation. The constitution mandates the administration, including the Batasan, or legislature, to convert slowly into a semiparliamentary form of government. The president in such a situation can issue decrees and edicts.
We do not postpone the participation of the lower classes of our people in the profits of economic enterprise, and in other countries, they do postpone it. In the long run, I think our policy is better, and we stand by it.
Let us not be carried away by the undisguised agitations of leaders who virtually asked people to take the law into their own hands.
How can I wage political battle against a widow who does not mean anyone any harm except only the president himself?
I can feel it in my bones that no matter what we do, even if we do not do anything, the revolutionary government of Madame Cory Aquino will collapse.
I'll take my destiny, whatever that may be, but I'm going to fight for my dignity and my honor.
I am ashamed to run against a lady. It's demeaning, very degrading. I have always refused to argue with a lady.
I have Chinese blood in me... I am not ashamed to admit that perhaps the great leaders of our country all have Chinese blood.
Authority has to exist before it can be limited, and it is authority that is in scarce supply in those modernizing countries where government is at the mercy of alienated intellectuals, rambunctious colonels, and rioting students.
What we ask of the developed countries is to let the Third World find a third way.
Freedom is not just declared; it is exercised.
The U.S. State Department has a consistent record of error in the assessment of Asian situations and judging Red Chinese intentions.
I often wonder what I will be remembered in history for. Scholar? Military hero? Builder?
Little boys have amazing minds.
Leadership is the other side of the coin of loneliness, and he who is a leader must always act alone. And acting alone, accept everything alone.
I have been called brave in my time, but brave as I may have been against foreign invaders, I have no heart to shed Filipino blood.
These statements about torture, about alleged misuse of power and things like that, insulted the Filipinos more than their leader because it was made to appear as if Filipinos would tolerate a leader who would torture his own people, who would utilize his executive prerogatives for abuses.
It is not true that I dictate what should be done. There is a dialogue.
In the Philippines, the host should always be willing to defer to the wishes of the guest.
Let us not be so naive as to think that revolution is just a matter of social or economic discontent.
We dare not supress thoughts, but when they are expressed through violence, like the idea that power comes from the barrel of a gun, they must be dealt with and met accordingly.
I will fight to the last breath, even though my family cowers in terror in the palace.
I am not afraid to go to jail.
To write our constitution is for the past, the present, and the future to come together all at once in one single motion, in one single heave, one single cry. For we correct the errors of the past and chart a new course for the future, based on the experience of the present.
For us, overseas employment addresses two major problems: unemployment and the balance of payments position.
The primary problem in many modernizing societies is not liberty but the creation of a legitimate public order. Men may, of course, have order without liberty, but they cannot have liberty without order.
I do not care how brave a president is; I do not care how many medals he may wear. I do not care how well trained his guards may be. If he violates the will of the people, he shall be eliminated.
I can understand the Cultural Revolution of Mao Tse-tung.
The permissiveness of society must be balanced with authoritativeness.
I was deposed by a coup d'etat, by friends that I trusted and aided by the American Government.
The challenge to Asia is to discard the dry, meatless bone of mysticism and fatalism.
There are many things we do not want about the world. Let us not just mourn them. Let us change them.
I would like to see whether my supposed successors can really operate the government without causing a crisis.
We have no quarrel with a policy that seeks to support human rights.
If it were true that special favors were given to some of these people because they are my cronies, then they should still be here, and they should be wealthy. But who are these cronies? If there be any cronies in government, point them out, and we will investigate.
To preserve our sovereign integrity, we must prove to them nobody need tell us how to hold a clean and democratic election.
The one indisputable reality of dictatorship is that dissent, insult, and malevolent language do not go unpunished if it is allowed at all.
Whatever be the challenges, whatever be the obstacles before us, I say to you as I say to everybody else that we will overcome.
There is a standard joke in the family. Probably we should go into selling second-hand shoes.
President Reagan has no enemies in the Phillipines.
My countrymen: we have reached a turning point in our history. The choice is yours. Shall we venture into this brave new world, bright with possibilities, or retreat to the safety of our familiar but sterile past? I am for crossing the frontier.
Filipino talents and skills are becoming ubiquitous in many parts of the world. Returning Filipino workers have helped improve our skills and technological standards.
Nobody is impervious to misfortune.
Filipinos are not worse than any other colonized people except that our colonization was a little longer, and the independence movement was always dictated in political terms, never in social ones. We borrowed terms, but we didn't understand them.
Once a champion, always a champion.
History should not be left to the historians. Rather, be like Churchill. Make history, and then write it.
America must realize, there are conditions she must accept in Asia. The first is a diversity of Asian cultures, governments, economic and political systems; the second, that to run against the tide of Asian nationalism is worse than impractical - it is also highly dangerous.
The challenge to America is to extend to Asia the defensive shield of American power in forms consonant with Asian freedom and self-respect.
