PRESIDENT Manuel L. Quezon inaugurated the City of Iloilo on August 25, 1937.
He used the occasion as an opportunity to deliver a major policy speech on social justice.
The following are excerpts of President Quezon’s speech:
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When I tendered the appointment to Doctor Campos, he begged me to be allowed to decline it, on the ground that his professional and business interests would suffer thereby. Upon my insistence, Doctor Campos accepted the post only as a public duty that he could not well evade.
I congratulate Doctor Campos and the people of Iloilo, and I express the hope that both will be thankful for this appointment; Mayor Campos, because it affords him an opportunity to serve his people, the people of a great and progressive city, and the people of Iloilo, because under Mayor Campos’ administration the city will, I am confident, develop and improve.
I want to say one word about Governor Consing. I have thought of Governor Consing for the mayorship of this city, but the question of finding his successor in the governor’s chair was a political problem of no mean proportions. Again, I feared that his appointment might be misconstrued as primarily political, and so he himself preferred the appointment of Doctor Campos.
Despite the coalition of the two national political parties, partisanship in the provinces has been very difficult, indeed has been impossible, to eliminate. Iloilo, however, has not given me so much concern or trouble as the other provinces; I know that the fight between pros and antis is going on here, but it is a gentlemen’s fight and not so noisy as to disturb my peaceful sleep at night. This happy situation is due to Governor Consing and Assemblyman Montinola on the one hand, and to Assemblymen Zulueta, Confesor, Salcedo, and Buenaflor, on the other hand. I wish to thank them all and I take leave to crave their continued cooperation in my endeavor to turn the public mind, temporarily, at least, from bitter, partisan politics to a more constructive and high-spirited administration of public affairs.
The country needs our common purpose and our combined efforts, and we must give both with enthusiasm and determination. Thus only can we insure the future happiness, well-being, and liberty of our people.
To conclude, I wish to say one word on behalf of the working class:
We must all cooperate to find the means and to use these to improve the lot of the working classes in the Philippines. Particularly should the provinces enjoying the benefits of the sugar industry immediately and substantially raise the wages of labor. No industry in the Philippines is being benefited by our trade relations with America nearly so much as the sugar industry. There have sprung in Negros, Iloilo and Pampanga, in the last few years, millionaires as we have never had before. They have palaces, automobiles, and live a life of comfort and luxury here and abroad. I am not criticizing them; it is their privilege to spend their money as they please. I am merely stating a fact, for I want to point out that we are doing everything we can, not only to prevent the collapse, but to maintain in full blast, the prosperity of the sugar industry. But the government demands that this prosperity be shared with the workingmen in the sugar fields and in the sugar centrals. Very little, if any, of the immense profits of the sugar industry, has gone into the pockets of labor.
I say in all earnestness, to the owners of sugar centrals and to the proprietors of sugar lands that unless they raise the wages of their laborers and treat them better, the Government and the country may lose interest in the defense of the sugar industry.
We cannot be the servants of a privileged class. We are the servants of the whole people and we shall not permit an injustice to be done, much less perpetuated, against any constituent part of our community. Unless the sugar industry, of its own accord, increases immediately the wages of its workingmen, I shall ask the National Assembly to enact legislation that will compel that industry to do so.
We are living in an age in which civilized society can only endure if justice is accorded equally to the rich and to the poor. Those who have can only hope to keep their possessions indefinitely, if they share part of their profits with those who work for them. This is a question of justice, not of charity. A man is more entitled to the fruits of his labor than the proprietor to the rent of his property. (Source: Presidential Museum and Library)
