In a global arena, what our businessmen need in order to be competitive is transparency and a level playing-field.

I want ordinary people to enjoy a decent standard of living, with ever increasing security, comfort and joy.

Before September 11, we were fighting terrorism in our southwestern Philippines, and it was a lonely fight. However, we were able to contain it now in one island in that part of the Philippines. But after September 11, and after the creation of the global coalition against terrorism, now we have allies, and I believe now it will easier with allies.

I will follow my father's footsteps by doing what is right, and God will take care of the rest. My father is my role model. My living role model is Cory Aquino.

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

On the economy, the U.S. cumulatively is our most important investor, most important trading partner, most important sort of tourists, and we have now a tie that will... a link that will be here for many, many years to come, and that is the big Philippine-American community in the United States - three million of them.

The people want government that works for them at every level. They want good government that begins at their doorstep in the barangay, and does not end before the closed door of a bureaucrat in Metro Manila.