“I suggest that the main reason we are in this world is that we have a mission: to help build a just and liveable world where people, no matter their differences in race, creed, status in life or sex, will help and treat one another as fellow human beings.”
He said the reason we are in this country is that “by choice, fate or divine design, the Philippines is the starting point of our journey toward becoming fully human, that state of life when we treat and relate to all peoples, especially in our country, as our brother and sister Filipinos. I would like to add that we become truly human when we believe and act so that no one lives or dies only for himself.”
“try to discern why we want to go into public service, transform the world we live in and make a difference in people’s lives.”
“In the context of our country’s democratic institutions, those in public office serve the people not as slaves but as public servants with the people’s consent which they express through free and honest elections.”
“By serving the people, the public servants deliver political, social and economic benefits to the body politic, and advance the people’s liberties and human rights,”
“Getting into public service via the electoral process means getting involved in politics, usually partisan politics in a democratic setting.
“Politics in its pristine sense simply means defining policies for the good of the people. It means planning by government officials with the participation of the people to deliver their basic needs,”
Public servant must possess at least three Cs: character (which includes integrity), capacity (the ability to get things done) and courage (the virtue to stick to and do what is right).
US Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, who summed up his own life’s work in these words: “The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die.”
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