Dr. Jesus Estanislao just planed in from America the night before, but no amount of jetlag could dampen his enthusiasm, on Thursday and Friday last week, to hammer on the need for values to permeate the realm of governance in the Philippines. He did so as founding chair of the Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA), a “collaborative for sectoral leaders, public officials and citizens committed to good governance in all aspects and levels of life in society.” One can’t fail to note the consistency in the branding here, as the acronym ISA also means “one.”
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A recent visit at the slaughterhouse of San Fernando, Pampanga has re-underscored the need for local government units (LGUs) to find creative ways of sourcing funds for local development. There are certainly good practices on this yet most of our LGUs are still grappling with modalities to allocate scarce financial resources to finance daily operations and fulfill their public service mandate.
“Do you know that the best watermelon in the country is produced in Bani, Pangasinan?
Bani is noted for producing the sweetest, reddest and juiciest watermelon in the country. When Anna Levy of Washington D.C., Ashley Acedillo of Institute for Solidarity and Asia and I visited Bani, Dr. Beth Navarro, Mayor Marcelo Navarro’s wife, served us the reddest, juiciest watermelon I have ever tasted. It was colorfully delicious, a delightful combination of color and sweet taste..”
Dr. Jesus P. Estanislao, Chairman, Institute for Solidarity in Asia
We now have the three components of our base chart. We have our Core Values, which serve as the true foundations of our efforts to further build our nation and bring genuine progress to our people. We also have a Mission, which gives us our North Star, giving clear direction to our continuing and never-ending efforts at people development within a democratic society. And within that Mission, we have a Vision, which articulates what we aim to realize and achieve within a definite time horizon, in this instance between 2010 and 2030, i.e. in slightly less than a generation.
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.
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.
Dr. Jesus P. Estanislao, Chairman, Institute for Solidarity in Asia
Every six years, we are asked to elect the President who would be at the helm of our nation’s public affairs. Since a few Presidential candidates put themselves forward, there has to be a “division of the nation”, so to speak, in the same manner that we speak about a “division of the house” when a vote has to be taken. Thus, at a time when we have to pause and reflect on our choice of the next President of our Republic, it is easy to forget about the values that unite us. These values we should always keep on our radar screens, since all too often we think and act as a sorely divided nation. In fact, there is too much division in our land, not only during the election season when we consider several Presidential candidates, but also during the long period in between elections.
