Your Excellency, we welcome you into this building which serves the interest of the nation all over the world through our 81 embassies and the consular offices. We welcome you because you enter not only into this building that symbolizes service for the international community, but also because you enter into the hearts and the minds of the officials and personnel of the Department of Foreign Affairs who share your vision of good government.

We welcome you because even as we speak, we have already implemented a number of your eight-point foreign policy realities already enunciated. And we welcome you because of personal reasons, since many of us were closely associated with the legal officer of the Department of Foreign Affairs of old. The man who authored the first Foreign Service Act when he was a congressman. The man whose heart is for the foreign affairs department, President Diosdado Macapagal.

We welcome you because we have already implemented programs which will not only help the more than 8 million Overseas Filipino Workers, but will also empower them by showing them how they can channel their savings towards more fruitful endeavors, which will benefit themselves, their families and the nation. We have already signed the protocol agreement with the International Labor Organization and we are doing so in accordance with your vision. We welcome you because we know that you share with us public services that we intend to expand and deliver to the people.

We have already initiated the Machine Readable Passports and Visas (MRP/V) project which we hope will go a long way towards eliminating the long lines of passport applicants and ensuring the security of the passport and visa services in this country. We are also initiating the provident fund not only for the locals, but also for the Overseas Filipino Workers in conjunction with the SSS. And we welcome you because we know that you share with us the concerns of the Filipino officials and personnel of the department.

We would like to point out that when the salary standardization law was passed with the authorship of none other than the Executive Secretary, then Senator Romulo, there was a discrepancy between the salary scale of the DFA and that of other departments of the other branches of governments. For example, at the DFA, there is only one rank or class of director, whereas the directors of other government offices are ranked as directors 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. A director in the DFA gets PhP22,521.00 a month, whereas those in other agencies get PhP28,875.00.

And so with your permission Mrs. President, we will take initiatives regarding this matter. Because the Budget Department told us at the time the Salary Standardization Law was passed that we could correct this later on. And so we will, with your permission, try to do so and correct this for the benefit of the officials and personnel of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Mrs. President, we welcome you with open hearts and we share with you all the visions, the policies and the endeavors of the DFA for good and honest governance in this land,  a new page of history in the nation.

MABUHAY ANG ATING PRESIDENTE!