Dr. Jesus P. Estanislao, Chairman, Institute for Solidarity in Asia
Further building our nation and bringing about genuine development to our people would take us a few Administrations, perhaps at least a generation or even more. Thus, while understandably we focus on the next six years, we should also allow our vision to stretch way beyond 2016, at the very least up to 2030.
Our vision that we should aim to realize by 2030 should enable us to put behind us one of the deepest problems we have yet to resolve, that of greater national cohesion and national unity. The Vision for Philippines 2030 is put forward as follows: Isang Sambayanang may Kapunuan ng Buhay, i.e. one community with a fullness of life, with special accent and emphasis on “one”. This underscores the dream we ought to realize as a people some 20 years from now—one nation with responsible citizens who deeply love their motherland. Thus, as we love to repeat rather often: Isang baying maka-Diyos at Isang lahing maka-bayan, i.e. one people with strong democratic institutions effectively working for the common good.
We still have to become one national community, one nation, and one people! This demands of all of us responsible citizenship, which makes us identify our nation’s affairs as our very own, our nation’s problems as ours to solve, and our nation’s progress as ours to achieve. This identification with the fate, fortune, progress, and development of our people is how we show deep love for our motherland, and that love needs to be shown in deeds of generosity, selflessness, and commitment to the common good every hour of each week, or as we say nowadays, 24/7.
The exercise of responsible citizenship, which is a duty on the part of all, without any exception whatsoever, is best done through democratic institutions. Institutions take our focus way beyond mere personalities, who necessarily have to leave and pass away from whichever part of the national stage they may occupy for a time. They make us focus on those instruments of a democracy that need to endure: these are the ones that last; they stay from one generation to the next; moreover, they need to be strengthened and made more effective with the passage of time. This task of strengthening democratic institutions is an immediate challenge we need to rise up to, most especially in the next two decades.
It is through our democratic institutions that each one of us is called upon to work effectively for the common good of and in our motherland. Again, the focus should be way beyond self, i.e. beyond ego, beyond immediate family and close relations, and even beyond narrower geographical circumscriptions such as municipalities, provinces, cities, and regions. Rather, our focus should be on what each one of us can do, and what our respective families, municipalities, provinces, and cities can contribute to the general welfare and genuine development of our country, our Inang Bayan. This is a clear invitation for our spirits to soar beyond narrow boundaries and reach national heights, because the nation is our motherland, and we have to give due respect to, and take great care of, our country—our motherland! No one else will.
Strengthening our “democratic institutions” as part of our vision to actualize in the next 20 years would give flesh to what we should continuously be pursuing as part of our mission, that of securing for ourselves and our posterity the “blessings of independence and democracy”. Furthermore, getting every one of us, as responsible citizens, to work “effectively for the common good” as part of our vision up to 2030 would also tie in very well with what we have to keep pursuing as part of our mission, that of “promoting the common good” and of “conserving and developing our patrimony”.
Once again, we have consistency, in this instance between our continuing, permanent mission as a people and our more concrete vision to actualize by 2030.
Manila, January 19, 2010
From his column, “Swimming against the Current,”
Manila Bulletin
