(Keynote Address delivered by REP. EDCEL C. LAGMAN at the 10th Congress of the Freedom from Debt Coalition at the College of Social Work and Community Development, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City on 22 November 2007)
Last week, just outside the south wing of the House of Representatives, an explosion killed four people, including a Representative, and injured 11 others. In memory of the dead and for the recovery of the injured, I ask for a moment of silence.
The day before this lethal explosion, and right inside the Plenary Hall of the House, there was a vital implosion, but without blinding light, without deafening sound, without searing heat. No one was killed, no one was injured. Its target was not one, two, or any number of Representatives. Its target was the most numerous among the represented. Its aim was not to kill and maim, but to rectify and vitalize.