He honored at breakfast in Malacanang distinctly honest employees and citizens. The program included moral regeneration seminars in all departments, bureaus, and agencies. My father confined his moral generation drive to the executive branch, which was his direct responsibility. Even if it were legitimate for him to provide direction in the campaign for moral improvement in the other two branches of the government, my father felt that he was not in a morally strong position to do so until he could keep his own executive branch in proper ethical order. He, however, exerted efforts to keep as far as practicable members of congress from conducting individual raids and inspections in business enterprises, which was essentially an exercise in executive function, and which from previous observation was no help in the drive against graft.
Public office is a public trust and a social contract.
Corruption is a violation of this trust and a breach of this social contract. I congratulate the organizers of this conference for working to ensure that public office means public service. In this conference, may we learn from one another's experiences in fighting corruption.