Mandate for Greatness

• The Filipino, it seems, has lost his soul, his dignity, and his courage.
  
  We have come upon a phase of our history when ideals are only a veneer for greed and power, (in public and private affairs) when devotion to duty and dedication to a public trust are to be weighted at all times against private advantages and personal gain, and when loyalties can be traded.
  
  …Our government is in the iron grip of venality, its treasury is barren, its resources are wasted, its civil service is slothful and indifferent, its armed forces demoralized and its councils sterile.,
  
  We are in crisis. You know that the government treasury is empty. Only by severe self-denial will there be hope for recovery within the next year...
  
  This nation can be great again. This I have said over and over. It is my articles of faith, and Divine Providence has willed that you and I can now translate this faith into deeds. -----------Mandate for Greatness,” First Inaugural Speech of President Ferdinand E. Marcos, 30 December 1965.