Dr. Jesus P. Estanislao, Chairman, Institute for Solidarity in Asia
We are a nation, a people bound together by many common experiences we have had to endure, not the least of which is our common history. It is always instructive and helpful for us to look back, and underscore the roots of our nationhood.
It is also instructive and helpful for us to look forward, and underscore the common task calling for our commitment and our better spirits: we do have a nation to further build and strengthen as well as a people to further develop and whose genuine progress we need to speed up. This common task should also unite us. It may take more than a lifetime. It may involve many generations: it throws into bold relief the continuing mission we need to undertake as a people, in full consistency with our core values. Deepening the sense of mission that we have as the Filipino people can give us the unity of grand purpose that we so sorely and often lack as we go through the many issues that confront us.
What, then, is our Mission as the Filipino people?
First and foremost, we are seeking to “build a just and humane society”. This is fully consistent with the core value of giving due “respect for the dignity of each person”, since only a just society shows in operational terms its deep appreciation of, indeed its veneration for, the personal dignity of each man, woman, and child, i.e. every human being, in our land.
In pursuit of this mission, we also have to “establish a government that shall promote the common good”. Again, this is fully consistent with the core value of “good governance and responsible citizenship”. Only a government that puts the common good at the very front and center of all its programs and projects—indeed, of all its laws and its public undertakings—can claim to embody “good governance”. Moreover, it can more effectively pursue the common good only if it enlists and calls upon the better spirits of the citizenry, who shall share in taking up the responsibility of promoting the general welfare of the entire community.
A government fully focused on the common good promotes and observes a “culture of excellence, discipline and integrity”, another core value. The standards of governance it observes and of responsible citizenship it demands need to be high, in full compliance with the principles and best practices of a “democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, love, equality and peace”. It is for this fundamental reason that our mission as a people includes the strengthening of our democratic institutions and making them work effectively for the “blessings of independence” and the authentic progress of all Filipinos, i.e. of everyone, and not just of the privileged few.
The blessings of authentic progress of all Filipinos accrue not only to the present generation but also to all succeeding generations. Thus, our mission extends to our having to “conserve and develop our patrimony”, which ties in well with one of our core values, i.e. the “responsible stewardship in the preservation and enrichment of our environment and culture”. Here, we find the underscoring once again of good governance, which demands that we think across many generations, and therefore of our long-term responsibility for both those Filipinos who are in our land today as well as those others who shall inherit our land and natural resources, our culture and the other elements of our national patrimony.
Where do these components of our mission as a people come from? They are eloquently articulated in the Preamble of our present Constitution, which starts by “imploring the aid of Almighty God”, thereby giving further substance to the very first core value, which is “love of God”. Thus, every one of our core values is connected with an element of the Mission Statement, drawn from the current Constitution of the Philippines. This is as it should be: core values are the foundations for further building our nation; our Mission as a people gives us our North Star. It provides us with the permanent compass towards the direction we should continuously be pursuing, without let or distraction or intermittent disturbance.
Manila, January 16, 2010
from his column “Swimming against the Current,”
Manila Bulletin
