Thank you, Sec. Anton Lagdameo.

[Please take your seats.]

The NUP Chairman, Ronnie Puno; the NUP President and CamSur Second District Representative Lray Villafuerte; and the other members of the NUP; and of course, our — my party mates in the PFP who, led of course by — ably led by Governor Jun Tamayo; all of my fellow workers in government; ladies and gentlemen, good morning.

Well, once again, it is a very bright day when we are beginning to see constantly this unification. This is something that we started actually before the elections, before the campaign of 2022. And it is good to see that we are still solidly behind that concept.

Now, many commentators, undoubtedly, are going to say: These are marriages of convenience. These are the usual political maneuverings in Philippine politics where every party, every candidate or perspective candidate or any political leader for that matter finds where is it best, what is the most politically advantageous place to be in terms of my party affiliation.

And it has been — there is some truth to that as the party alliances especially on an individual basis can be seen as merely marriages of convenience.

And once again, since we are bringing all of these, disparate forces together, not so disparate, but separate forces together, we will again be seen and commented upon and said to be another marriage in convenience.

Well, I would like to put paid to that idea. I grew up studying political science within watching these parliamentary systems in Europe, in Europe but most specifically of course in England. Doon ako nag-aral. But I was exposed to politics, party politics in that whole parliamentary milieu.

And we watched, if you will look a little bit, when a party is called a conservative party, the ideology of that party is conservative. When they are called the liberal party, they are liberal in their ideology.

When they are called the — for example, the specific ones, let me use again a British example, SNP, Scottish Nationalist Party. They essentially exist as Scottish nationalists. The Green Party in Germany, essentially gave birth to this party, Germany gave birth to this party because of the environmental issues.

So, central to each of these parties’ existence is an ideology and that is what I would see. Sometimes, well, marriage of convenience, there is no ideology. So, that is why, I think that we are making a very important change in the thinking, in the politics of the Philippines.

Let us base it not on political expediency but on ideology. And what is the ideology that we are espousing. We speak now of unity. We speak now of Bagong Pilipinas, bringing the country, transforming the country to another place, to a better place than we had found it.

And that is what we plan to do and we have come to the understanding and to the agreement that that can only be achieved if we have unity, if we all work together.

Not only us in the political arena but also everyone, every citizen, every agency of government, every local government, every citizen even, including even the private sector that we have realized and we must now come to that understanding that we will only achieve the transformation that we dream about for the Philippines if we are united, if we agree, if there is consensus amongst us on what needs to be done, how we are going to do it, and we all work together.

Now, this is not an easy [unclear]. There will be many times that political forces will intrude upon that and that is life, that is — iyan ang buhay ng politiko. You also… Of course, we dream and there are principles that we uphold but of course, there are political forces that get in the way. But that is the whole point of these alliances that we are making.

That is the whole point because we now formalize and put together a mechanism if there are in fact these contradictions, if there are in fact these differences that we now have a method to resolve them without going to extreme — undertaking extreme measures like moving away from the party, running as independent, having — both allies fighting against each other politically, sometimes even more.

But nonetheless, that is what I see as what we are doing. So, when people come to us and say: Pampulitika lang ‘yan, nangyari lang ‘yan dahil sa eleksyon, parating na ang eleksyon.

Well, we cannot deny, there is truth to that, we have to organize ourself for the next election. But we organize ourself, that’s not a marriage of convenience. It is an understanding that we must come together if we are to transform our country into the modern, safe, sustainable, growing country that we dream of, that we have all dreamed of in all our lifetime.

Because at the heart of what we are doing is public service and that is what we want to provide.

So, when they once again, when you hear that phrase marriage in convenience, then let us answer them: No, unity is in fact our ideology. That is what has brought us together. We do have ideals. This is not just to win the next election. This is to make the Philippines a better place. And that is what we are doing here. [applause]

So, it serves us to remind the commentators, that that is the case, but also it serves to remind ourselves: why are we doing all of these; why are we doing whatever it is that we are doing; why are we coming together. Are we coming together just so that we can support each other in election?

Yes, but the reason we want to support each other in the election is because we want to work together. We want to work with a common purpose in mind, with the consensus of what we are trying to do. And that I believe, is what we are seeing here today with the alliances, the coalitions — whatever you want to call them — between the different political parties.

I think that that is what we are doing today. We are uniting behind the dream of transforming the Philippines and that dream will be achieved by unity.

So, congratulations for joining that ideology, for believing in that ideology.

It is the only way that we will make our country, the country that the Filipinos deserve.

Thank you very much. Good morning. [applause]

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