The Philippines and the U.S. have had a strong relationship with each other for a very long time now. We have a shared history. We have shared values, democracy, freedom, and we have been in all the wars together in modern history, the World War, Second World War, Cold War, Vietnam, Korea, now the war on terrorism.

It is the civilian part of the politics that is very, very bad, and we have to change that.

In the harshest possible terms, I condemn political killings.

The military is very constitutionalist, and I have my faith in them and in the cooler heads of the people.

In 1995, we had evidence of the brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden being in the Philippines, living in the Philippines. We had evidence of front organizations set up in the Philippines. And we uncovered evidence about, which would help the U.S. with - about the perpetuators of the World Trade Center bombing.

Now I ask you to make your sacrifice. Take a gamble. I took the plunge and I'm glad of it.

Filipino businessmen must have the ability to compete freely in the global economy.