Striving Towards Our Better Future

Empowering the Filipino People

By FIDEL V. RAMOS Former Philippine President

MANILA, Philippines — We live in a rapidly evolving era – one that is experiencing dramatic transformation. For the Philippines – as with our developing neighbors – severe poverty, economic decline, global warming/climate change, rapid population growth, international terrorism, violent conflicts/insurgencies and endemic diseases are just some of the complex problems shaping our world today. These threats do not recognize national borders; they affect Filipinos directly and harshly; and impact deeply on the ways we think and live.

Given the P-Noy-era’s divisiveness arising out of the impeachment of the Supreme Court Chief Justice (truly a “bare knuckles” fight between Malacañang and our highest court) – plus problems of impoverishment, rising prices, and impunity – the Philippines does face an uncertain future.

These so-called “ticking time-bombs” have remained unresolved this past decade – most serious being the deprivation of 25% of our expanding population in terms of food, healthcare, basic education, jobs, and environmental safety.

Our better future: Still within reach?

We have pointed out many times before in various venues that human development in the Philippines has been deteriorating.

In 1997, the Philippines placed in the top half of the UN Human Development Index (at the 46th percentile). In 2009, unfortunately, our country had dropped to within the bottom half of the HDI (at the 57th percentile), in the same league as impoverished South Asian nations like Bangladesh and small Pacific island-states like Fiji.

Being within the tailend position is surely not the fate of Filipinos, neither their ambition, as a “rising Tiger” in the Asia-Pacific.

On 29 February 2012, FVR will launch the 15th volume of his writings on Leadership, Citizenship and Governance titled “Towards Our Better Future.” Hopefully, this book will help refocus our efforts and suggests some “best practices” to help us get there faster and sustainably. It picks up from where Volume 14 (2011) left off – notably people empowerment, livelihood, the environment, the economy, social reform, peace and security, population quality and foreign relations.

Like previous books, Volume 15 targets as its main audience our elected leaders, lawmakers, local government officials, and private sector leaders.

Our ultimate goal is enduring peace, sustainable development and inclusive modernization of our 95 million plus population.

A more creative and responsive leadership

In the current socio-economic milieu – increasing pressures of globalization, scarce resources, and increased risks and opportunities – our country needs creative leaders who can deal with these complexities.

In addition, we need leaders who perform their tasks in accordance with accepted standards of accountability and competence. And, they must expand our comparative advantages to become powerful drivers for growth in today’s world.

The present challenge for us as a nation is to attain the full potential of God’s blessings to the Philippines – of talented people, bountiful natural resources, and strategic assets.

Given our overriding national purpose and long-term vision, each benchmark should come within reach, and our common aspiration for a higher quality of life should become doable within 10-15 years.

Our leaders’ responsibility goes beyond simply presiding over government functions. Leaders must point the way to our people toward a series of achievable goals to which the citizenry must contribute.

Towards more responsible citizens

From our experience, we know that development cannot trickle down from the top only. Rather, there has to be an unbroken process of progressing from the bottom-up as well.

FVR’s consistent advocacy for sustainability is that of the bibingka (Filipino ricecake) principle, which basically requires various stakeholders at the community level to contribute their counterpart efforts for national projects to succeed. If it is to be delicious and marketable, our bibingka must be cooked with “fire from the bottom and fire from the top” – meaning this counterparting strategy compels Filipinos at the grassroots to strive to become genuine shareholders (and therefore beneficiaries) towards inclusive wealth-creation and progress. Economic sustainability, social responsibility, and environmental stewardship should all be combined to insure a better future for our people.

We call such virtues of self-reliance and community cooperation simply “responsible citizenship.” Our caring, sharing and daring define each individual’s duty to family, friends and community. The ancient Chinese wisely say: “prosper thy neighbor.”

As our world becomes less and less safe – because of natural disasters, volatile food and energy supply, rising commodity prices and continuing poverty, greater emphasis must now be placed on building State capacity, strengthening institutions, promoting teamwork, and enhancing inclusiveness.

Leaders do not have all the motivations and the skills needed to build our nation. It is essential that each citizen (as a valuable shareholder) is fully involved in this vital mission.

Vanguards in nation-building

We are all vanguards in the long march of nation-building. And, at the end of the day, we develop a more competitive and more bountiful Philippines. To move our whole nation towards these higher goals, it is incumbent that the ideals of caring, sharing and daring are applied to help others who have less in life.

Caring, sharing and daring are, in fact, among the key commitments that have worked for us in times of challenge, calamity, and crisis. These virtues – if manifested in our daily lives and professions, and embedded in our governance – will enable Filipinos, working together, to win a better future.

Political will to get the job done must be provided by leaders because bureaucratic functionaries may not dare to make decisions that put their jobs at risk. We need leaders in the corporate world, with their financial and technological capital, to make the right investments; we need academe and research institutions to develop and uplift the quality of manpower; we need non-government organizations and peoples’ associations as co-workers and watchdogs.

We must now enhance Planet Earth’s most important assets which are our human resources – empowered people in particular, because people empowerment leads to excellence that, in turn, creates greater competitiveness.

Towards healthier, greener and more sustainable practices

Nothing is more important than the day-to-day tasks that our leaders and citizens must do together to build our nation. Nothing is more powerful than making sure that these efforts are pushed with passion and resolve.

With the upsurge of global warming, we have regularly warned that our world, the Philippines in particular, has reached a critical juncture. Planet Earth is threatened by humankind’s own reckless imprudence, whose harmful effects still are largely unmitigated – despite increasing awareness about Nature’s wrath and the incalculable damage that climate change inflicts.

It is true that some forward steps have been taken by the international community to deal with climate change. But, these have come at a snail’s pace. We can no longer afford to wait as mere spectators to humanity’s own catastrophic decline. We are therefore compelled to seek our own ways – to be pro-active and to tackle community-specific problems and national adversities without delay.

Most urgently, we need to set up modes of cooperation between the private and public sectors – indeed, among all the stakeholders in “green growth,” which means all of us.

Towards stronger international cooperation and community

As a component population of Planet Earth, Filipinos are responsible for building our own country’s safety and protective defenses. Our nation will be more successful if we help contribute to a more bountiful future for all – through stronger international cooperation.

While we must confront serious threats within our country, we must also recognize that we live in an interdependent world, and that there are global challenges to tackle together. It is essential to emphasize that close cooperation for mutual benefit is the kind of synergy we should encourage and cultivate. And, this is why it is necessary to exchange knowledge and support among neighbors – to do what we can in strengthening our bilateral/multilateral economic, security, cultural, educational and people-to-people linkages.

We must continue to nurture our regional organizations like APEC, ASEAN, ASEAN Regional Forum and East Asia Economic Grouping, and collectively push for concerted action to attain enduring peace and sustained socio-economic development for our Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

But, let us not forget our foremost duty is to win for the Philippines a place of respect and dignity – a position we once occupied – that it deserves in the world community.

Our leaders must forthwith take steps to reinforce existing international networks. We need commitments from them to further enhance existing partnerships to help attain the “One World” to which we all aspire.

Anecdotes

Volume 15 ends with the usual amusing, critical or historical narratives shared by former government officials, opinion-makers, and FVR associates.

The anecdotes included therein are not simply to evoke good memories, but also to impart valuable lessons for our readers as well. Some may be libelous, partly subversive or border on impeachability – but all were done in good faith.

THE COMMON THREAD THROUGHOUT THE BOOK IS: KAYA NATIN ITO (WE CAN DO THIS)!!!

Please send any comments to fvr@rpdev.org. Copies of articles are available at www.rpdev.org.