Quotes from Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

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

Agrarian reform should not merely subdivide misery, it must raise living standards. Ownership raises the farmer from his, but productivity will keep him on his feet.

I can't do everything alone. I need all Filipinos to unify.

The Constitution says that troops can be in the Philippines if there's a treaty that provides for it, and we have two treaties with the United States.

I am very grateful to our Muslim population. One of the things we've been doing is stepping up our inter-faith dialogue with the Muslim population. And I think that helped very much in their support for me.

I feel that if I am freed of the burden of politics, then I can do more, and I can take more unpopular decisions.

I shall work with Congress, civil society groups and local government executives who are convinced that charter changes are needed to enable the country to surmount the unprecedented challenges of the 21st century.

While there's been much progress on terrorism, there's still much work to do and it is very important that the countries work together in order to address this threat together.

Our educational system should make the Filipino fit not just for whatever jobs happen to be on offer today, but also for whatever economic challenge life will throw in their way.

College education is the great Filipino dream. But in a world of rapid technological change, getting a job or keeping it depends as much on how well one reasons as how well one uses his hands.

Real government is about looking beyond the vested to the national interest, setting up the necessary conditions to enable the next, more enabled and more empowered generation to achieve a country as prosperous, a people as content, as ours deserve to be.

Nature did not gift us with a mighty Mekong like Thailand and Vietnam, with their vast and naturally fertile plains. Nature instead put our islands ahead of our neighbours in the path of typhoons from the Pacific.

I can say that I have not done any culpable violation of the constitution.

My responsibility as president is to take care to solve the problems we are facing now and to provide a vision and direction for how our nation should advance in the future.

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