MANILA -- Britain's envoy to the Philippines greeted the country on its Independence Day Friday with a few Tagalog lines from revolutionary leader Andres Bonifacio's ode to the resistance against Spain.

Ambassador Daniel Pruce of the United Kingdom praised the Filipino people’s resilience, courage, kindness and love of country during the coronavirus pandemic.

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"I’ve seen the determination and resilience, the caring and the kindness and the sheer courage of Filipinos everywhere and here in the Philippines, I’ve been full of admiration for the love of the country that shrone through in the incredible collective effort to deal with the coronavirus," Pruce said in a video posted on the British Embassy's official Twitter page.

From Bonifacio's "Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa (Love for the Motherland)," he said:

"Aling pag-ibig pa ang hihigit kaya sa pagkadalisay at pagkadakila
gaya ng pag-ibig sa tinubuang lupa? Aling pag-ibig pa? Wala na nga, wala."

(Which love can be more pure, more noble, like one's love for the Motherland. Which love? Nothing.)

Amb @DanielPruce joins Filipinos around the world in celebrating Philippine Independence Day and shares a few lines from Andres Bonifacio's poem "Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa" #ArawNgKalayaan 🇵🇭 pic.twitter.com/4CsmUm6g8n

— British Embassy Manila 🇬🇧🇵🇭 (@ukinphilippines) June 12, 2020

-- report from Willard Cheng, ABS-CBN News