Press Release
August 7, 2013

VILLAR LAUDS MANDELA

Senator Cynthia Villar yesterday lauded the "life and deeds" of former South African President Nelson Mandela, one of the world's most acclaimed leaders who spent 27 years of his life in prison as he fought for his advocacies.

While he has been denounced a terrorist and communist sympathizer, Mandela has gained international recognition for his anti-colonial and anti-apartheid stance.

"He has been loved for his liberal economic policy, his former administration having introduced measures to encourage land reform, combat poverty and expand healthcare services," said Villar who was among the readers of excerpts from Mandela's writings in yesterday's tribute to the former South Africa President held at the Senate.

The event entitled, "In His Words: A Tribute to Nelson Mandela was sponsored by the United Nations Information Centre Manila (UNIC Manila) in cooperation with the Senate of the Philippines.

Villar, together with the other incumbent and former senators, was tasked to read excerpts from Mandela's writings.

She read the Filipino translation of the excerpts of Mandela's Address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City in October 3, 1994.

"The very fact that racism degrades both the perpetrator and the victim commands that, if we are true to our commitment to protect human dignity, we fight on until victory is achieved," read Villar.

"In all we do, we have to ensure the healing of the wounds inflicted on all our people across the great dividing line imposed on our society by centuries of colonialism and apartheid. We must ensure that colour, race and gender become only a God-given gift to each one of us and not an indelible mark or attribute that accords a special status to any," she further read.

Mandela, an anti-apartheid revolutionary politician also wrote in the same Address as read by Villar that: "We must work for the day when we, as South Africans, see one another and interact with one another as equal human beings and as part of one nation united, rather than torn asunder, by its diversity. The road we shall have to travel to reach this destination will by no means be easy. All of us know how stubbornly racism can cling to the mind and how deeply it can infect the human soul. Where it is sustained by the racial ordering of the material world, as is the case in our country, that stubbornness can multiply a hundred-fold."

"And yet however hard the battle will be, we will not surrender. Whatever the time it will take, we will not tire. The very fact that racism degrades both the perpetrator and the victim commands that, if we are true to our commitment to protect human dignity, we fight on until victory is achieved," further read Villar.

Villar also joined the ribbon-cutting during the opening of Mandela's exhibits led by Senate President Franklin Drilon, South Africa Ambassador Agnes Nuaade-Pitso and UN Resident Coordinator, Mr. Praveen Agrawal.

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