Distinguished leaders and members of the Filipino-American community,
My co-workers in the Government, Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Mga minamahal kong kababayan, Magandang Gabi sa inyong lahat.

When plans were being made for my participation in this year’s session of the United Nations General Assembly, I immediately conveyed to Consul General Cecille Rebong my strong desire to meet with you.  I told Consul General Cecille that my first visit to the United States as your Secretary of Foreign Affairs would not be complete unless I met with the Filipino Community under her jurisdiction.

I am very proud that for my very first encounter with the Filipino Community, I am meeting with you here in New York.

This is largely because your Consul General always talks very proudly of all of you.  She tells me that your love of our country remains strong and undiminished, she tells me that you are great company, and that you are unmatched when it comes to dancing the boogie and the tango.

But Congen Cecille has a point.  Your hard work and commitment have brought pride to all of us back home.  Your honesty and professionalism inspire us to seek greater heights.  Your love of your homeland and your dedication to your family are values that form unbreakable bonds to all of us back home.

Congen Cecille is certainly not alone in appreciating what you have contributed to your communities in the Philippines and here in America.  She is justly proud.

Before tonight’s meeting, your  Consul General, Cecille Rebong, handed me a profile of the Filipino-American community in Northeast USA.  The profile that I saw was simply astounding.  You have not only blazed a trail of professional and economic success; you have also transformed the Filipino community into a formidable bloc in the American political, economic and cultural mainstream.

You have Cely Carillo, the first Filipino to play a principal role in a Broadway production; the Ma-Yi Theater Company, an established theater group composed of Philippine American artists provides high-quality plays for both Filipino and American audiences since its founding in 1989;

Ms. Evelyn Mandac, the first and only Filipino to have sung at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.;

Ms. Marcelita Kabayao-Mortensen, the first Filipino concert pianist to play a full piano recital at Broadway’s Town Hall; Ms. Cecille Licad, probably the most successful Filipino concert pianist; Mr. Jose Garcia Villa, the first Filipino to publish a collection of short stories in the U.S.; Ms. Jessica Hagedorn, poet, performing artist and writer who has published two best-selling novels in the U.S.; and you have Mr. Howard Chua-Eoan, Senior Editor of Time Magazine.

In business, of course, you have Mrs. Loida Nicolas-Lewis, probably the most successful Philippine-American businesswoman in the U.S.;  Ms. Joanne de Asis, CEO and founder of Asia-Pacific Capital Partners; Ms. Lilia Calderon-Clemente, CEO of Clemente Capital; Ms. Josie Cruz-Natori, founder and CEO of the Natori Company; and Mr. Johnny Valdes of Johnny Air Cargo.

In the medical field, you have Dr. Felipe Tolentino, a well-known eye specialist in Boston; Ms. Lolita Compas, the first Filipino-American president of the New York State Nurses Association; and Dr. Lutgarda Abad Vasquez, recipient of the “Employee of the Year” Award of the New York State Department of Health.

In the judiciary,  you have Judge Nina Elgo, the first Asian-American to  be  appointed  Judge   of   the State Superior Court of the State of Connecticut.  In the academe, you have Mr. Kiwi Danao Camarra, the youngest honors graduate from the Harvard Law University.  And in a case of its own,  you have Mr. Nestor Sulpico, the honest Filipino Cabbie.
Far from being intimidated by the prospect of serving such a spectacular number of overseas Filipinos, I welcomed the opportunity.  This was because I knew that in serving you, I am not alone.  I will be guided by the President of the Republic as the chief architect who has the last word on foreign policy, and the men and women of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

I also knew that by serving you, I am putting myself at your service, our modern day heroes, as you continue to blaze a trail of professional and economic success in almost every nook and cranny of the globe, and as you look for more ways of directly helping your relatives back home and, indirectly, our motherland in achieving its economic development objectives.

You are powerful living symbols of what the Filipino can achieve.  You stand with pride with the other symbols of all that is good in the Filipino: your Independence Day celebrations are unparalleled; you have honored our national hero with a beautiful monument in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.  And for the first time in its colorful history, the Empire State Building was lit with the colors of our flag.

Your individual and collective accomplishments will surely serve as a source of pride and inspiration to millions of our countrymen.  More importantly, you have put our country on a pedestal, commanding the respect and admiration of other sovereign nations.  But what is truly endearing about you is that in spite of your successes, you have not forgotten our motherland.  You have remained Filipinos at heart, and in word and in deed. You have not forgotten the bayanihan spirit for which we are known the world over.

Knowing how rightly proud Congen Cecille is of you, I dare, I ask that you intensify this bayanihan spirit even as our motherland navigates through rough financial waters.  I am reminded of what I said in the U.N. last week when I spoke about winning the war against poverty.  I said then and I will say it again, eradicating poverty is a collective enterprise that requires the help, dedication and commitment not just of world governments and international non-governmental organizations, but all sectors of society down to the individual.

There are  many ways that you can help.  You can start by  investing more in the country through the framework of the Dual Citizenship Law and other allied laws.  As you would have already known, implementation of the Law is in full swing.

Dual citizens regain their former Philippine citizenship.  They are also fully restored into their civil and economic rights as Filipino citizens. Including, but not limited to, the right to purchase and own alienable lands of the public domain in the country without any limitation as to area or size, and the right to invest in any line of trade or industry.  You can also promote our products and our country.

You can also support the “Classroom Galing sa Mamamayang Pilipino Abroad,” a worldwide initiative by the DFA, Department of Education, Department of Labor and Employment and the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce.  I understand that the New York  Consulate General implements this program through its “Adopt-a-Classroom Project.”

I have been told by Consul General Rebong that this project has, in fact, received a positive response from the Filipino-American Community in Northeast USA.  I cannot tell you how elated am I to hear of this good news.

While serving as Senator of the Philippines and Executive Secretary to President Arroyo, I had the opportunity to travel to several depressed communities all over the country and I have seen with my own two eyes how a great number of our youth whom our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, called “fair hope of the Fatherland,” are training to become future leaders of our country under the most dreadful, if not despicable of, conditions.  Through your support, we can give our poor but deserving youth a fighting chance to build for themselves and their future families a better tomorrow.

In short, the field is wide open for you to practice your beneficence. However, whether and when you will help is ultimately  a personal decision for you to  make.   But then again, what will you answer when you are soon asked  what you did when our  motherland needed you most? I have faith that your answer will be: “Yes, while I was living the American dream, I also helped our motherland stay the economic course.”

Salamat po at Mabuhay kayong lahat!