Alan Cayetano

Address at the 30th Southeast Asian Games Opening Ceremony

delivered 30 November 2019, Philippine Arena, Bocaue, Bulacan , Philippines

[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio]

Faith without action is dead.¹

Your Majesty, the Sultan of Brunei, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, Your Excellencies, mga kababayan ["fellow countrymen" (Tagalog)], Southeast Asian brothers and sisters, our athletes, magandang magandang gabi ["a very good evening" (Tagalog)], good evening, as-salāmu ʿalaykum ["peace be upon you" (Arabic)]:

We would like to express our gratitude, first and foremost to the person who gave the "go signals" for the Philippines to host the 30th SEA Games: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.

Thank you, Executive Secretary [Salvador] Medialdea, Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee -- thank you [for the] Philippine Arena, Eduardo Manalo; thank you SEA Games Federation; all national organizing committees; thank you to our media partners and our sponsors for believing in us, that we can do this and we can prepare in the 18 months given to us.

Today, we put our faith in your hands, but we put actions into our faith.

Today, we gather as brothers and sisters, as a community of South East Asian nations.    

We gather as children of God, seeking to build a better world.

Yes, building a better world, for we live in a world that is full of pain and suffering; a world where there's so much hunger and poverty; a world where lies and fake news take center stage; a world -- a world where corruption, crime, and illegal drugs are destroying the next generation.  

Yet, we look at our athletes and we see the truth. We see strength. We see wisdom.

We look at these young people and we see not only the athletes, but we see our own future. In them, we see passion, sacrifice, discipline, teamwork, and respect -- everything we need to build a better world.

Today, we stand tall and tell the world that in Southeast Asia we are passionate; we are ready to make sacrifices; we are disciplined; we are believers in teamwork; and we firmly believe that everyone deserves our respect.

Today, we stand tall to tell the world that in Southeast Asia there is so much diversity. But we do not fear, because we have faith; because we have hope; because we put actions into our faith.

And why?

Because we love God. We love our community. We love our Southeast Asian brothers and sisters. And through that love, we pray as one, we build as one, we work as one, and we win as one.²

Book/CDs by Michael E. Eidenmuller, Published by McGraw-Hill (2008)

¹James 2: 17

² In a speech replete with rhetorical figures of repetition, it is fittingly consistent that the final stanza culminates in a rousing combination of anaphora ("We love...."), symploce ("We...as one...."), and climax ("We win as one.").

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