ISA aims to be a leading public governance reform institute in East Asia by 2015. According to its website (isacenter.org), ISA has the following key purposes : work with sectoral leaders in raising the standards of professional and ethical practice as well as of social responsibility in their respective sectors; work with public officials in institutionalizing a public governance system, in partnership with multi-sectoral coalitions, for the long-term development of their communities and institutions; and work with institutions to develop centers for leadership dedicated to the continuing training of citizens in the exercise of their civic duties and in their participation to serve the common good of society. Mr. Francisco Eizmendi, former San Miguel Corporation president, is the current ISA president.

Among the key advocacies of ISA is the Public Governance System, which uses the famous Balanced Scorecard developed by Robert Kaplan, a Harvard Business School professor and David Norton, co-founder and president of the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative. Noting that more than 75% of an organization’s value comes from intangible assets that couldn’t be captured by traditional metrics, Kaplan and Norton conceptualized the Balanced Scorecard to enable organizations to quantify critical intangibles such as people, information and culture.

To Kaplan and Norton, “you can’t manage what you can’t measure.” In their subsequent work, “Strategy Maps,” they argued further that “you can’t measure what you can’t describe.” Both “The Balanced Scorecard” and “Strategy Maps” were published by the Harvard Business School Press.

ISA is convinced that the Balanced Scorecard model is not only applicable in the business sector but also in the public sector, as well as in the nonprofit sector. It must be pointed out that the Balanced Scorecard is not just a measurement system but also a strategic management system, which has enabled many organizations all over the world to execute their strategies effectively.

Among local government units in the country that have adopted the Public Governance System are San Fernando, Pampanga and Iloilo City. Both have already gotten citations for breakthrough accomplishments. San Fernando was given the Maharlika Award while Iloilo City became the biggest winner as it got inducted into the Palladium Hall of Fame for effective strategy execution within the PGS framework. The awards were given by David Norton himself.

National government agencies and public institutions such as the Philippine Military Academy, the Philippine Navy, the National Electrification Agency, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and the Department of Education have also used the PGS. So have professional organizations like the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants and an association of nurses.

It was moving to listen to Dr. Estanislao passionately talk about the personal, institutional and social values that must attend public governance. This piece is titled “Solidarity” not only as an allusion to ISA, but also because solidarity is a core value in the realm of public governance. Solidarity, Dr. Estanislao explained, is a profound sense of interdependence. He said it is a deep commitment of every member of an organization to work towards the common good. Solidarity fosters the spirit of generosity.

Solidarity, Dr. Estanislao stressed, is best understood by asking the question, “what can we do for others and for the community, instead of asking, what can others do for us or what can the community give us and do for us.”

Please log on to http://jslatoza.wordpress.com/ ffor the author’s blogsite from which this article was taken. Also published in the Daily Guardian in Iloilo City on Feb 17, 2010.

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..”

Scientists are just discovering the wonderful health benefits of watermelon, writes Dr. Willie T. Ong. In his Starweek article, Dr. Ong cites findings of an ongoing study conducted by Texas A&M’s Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center.

The deep-red watermelon variety contains the pigment lycopene which helps slow down aging and prevents prostate cancer. Watermelon has vitamins A and C which are beneficial for our eyes. Watermelon increases the body’s arginine, an important amino acid that relaxes the blood vessels making it good for the heart and for men suffering from erectile dysfunction.

Watermelon is made up of 92% pure alkaline water which makes it safe for the stomach and a good alternative drink. It has health benefits for the whole digestive tract, starting from the mouth, esophagus, stomach and intestines. For example, it can relieve people with mouth sores. It can treat constipation and normalize bowel movement. Like coconut water, it cleanses the kidneys and bladder.

It is a rich source of B vitamins, electrolytes and potassium. Compared to an apple, it only has half as much sugar, and yet it tastes sweeter because of its high water content. It is effective for preventing heat stroke and heat exhaustion. The pulp can be used to treat heat rash and burns. Finally, which makes Dr. Ong’s article even more interesting, watermelon contains more glutathione per bite than 95 other fruits and vegetables making it an alternative solution for whitening and antioxidants.

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.

Bani farmers started planting watermelon in commercial quantities only in 1989, three years after the Bureau of Soil introduced the product to them. With a combination of talent, hardwork, government support and the Bani community spirit, Bani farmers have mastered the art and science of producing the sweetest, juiciest and reddest watermelon in the country.

Bani is quite an interesting town. Dubbed as the “Golden West”, it is located in the westernmost part of Luzon and lies between Tampac Bay on the northeast and South China Sea on the west where its coast is punctuated by a handsome cove . It is surrounded by four more popular towns — Bolinao on the north, Anda on the northeast, Alaminos on the east, and Mabini on the southeast and Agno on the south. Honestly, I never heard of Bani until I visited the town in February 2009. Bani is a third class municipality with a population of only close to 46,000 people.

As unremarkable as it may seem as compared to other more popular towns in Pangasinan and other provinces, I see the municipality of Bani as one of the brightest stars in local governance in the country. The successful venture in watermelon production is not an isolated episode that demonstrates successful partnership between government and community. There are many other excellent programs. Let me cite two.

First, Bani has received many awards one of which is the Presidential Award for Child Friendly Municipality. Bani won the award for its innovative programs and interventions in the promotion of the rights of children including the Community-Based Child Protection Unit (CPU), establishment of Barangay Civil Registration System, Supervised Neighborhood Play, active participation of children in planning activities, and a functional Municipal Council for the Welfare of Children. Other Bani awards are Cleanest Coastal Municipality, Jueteng Free, Gawad Pangulo sa Kapaligiran and Linis Dayat.

Second, the city hall and a multi-sector coalition have committed to a long-term vision that will make Bani into a city by 2020. Not just a city that qualifies because of population and income but a model green city in Southeast Asia. To prepare itself, Bani has enrolled in the Institute for Solidarity in Asia’s (ISA) Public Governance System (PGS). PGS is a management framework that prepares local governments for governance. Bani’s roadmap defines in quantifiable terms how it intends to become a model green city by 2020.

Bani has institutionalized many initiatives that can help it realize what it envisions to become by 2020 including becoming an educational hub for green technology in Pangasinan, implementing all critical greening technology, and encouraging farmers to exclusively use green farming technology. What gives me the confidence that Bani can successfully journey to its desired future is Bani’s greatest asset – a strong, working partnership between government and the community.

(This article was publised in Business World on April 30, 2009. for comments, write to abfontanilla@yahoo.com or nick.fontanilla@gmail.com)

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.

All three components provide us with a stable base chart, one which does not change with personalities who may serve in top positions of government within a term of 6 years. It is a base chart for governance, which necessarily invites us to think of a long time horizon (instead of only the relatively short term); of our institutions that last (instead of passing personalities); and therefore of strategies (instead of only smart tactics). Moreover, the strategies that need forging should address vital issues that the components of the base chart itself suggest.

These vital issues relate to the values we need to observe in all facets of our life as a nation; the fundamental institutions that are the critical drivers of change; the internal capacity of these institutions and the infrastructure we need to put in place to make them function more effectively; and finally, the economic resources with which to serve the basic needs of every Filipino.

In assessing these issues, we need to look at ourselves squarely. It is true that we have weaknesses we need to address, but also strengths we can build upon. Furthermore, we have many threats we face, and some of these may come to confront us from we know not where. However, we also have opportunities we can and should seize. As a result of making a frank and objective assessment of our weaknesses as well as strengths, and of the threats as well as opportunities that are out there, we can arrive at a set of strategic priorities we need to give serious consideration to and adopt as key spheres for close attention and decisive action.

A close look at these different strategic priorities would reveal that there is a close link between them. A few of them are so closely inter-related with each other that they can fall under one strategic theme, which can serve as a convenient umbrella under which to group them.

Three such strategic themes emerge from the set of strategic priorities, which arise out of the assessment made on the basis of our weaknesses and strengths as well as of our threats and opportunities, taking due account of the base chart for the long-term strategic direction of the governance of our country.

The first of these strategic themes is our “Shared Values”, which serves as the umbrella for six strategic priorities, i.e. “responsible citizenship”; “strengthen drivers of change”; “ethical and professional standards aligned with global standards”; “social responsibility programs spread to sectors and segments of society”;  “the Filipino enjoying the real benefits of development”; and “the Filipino being proud of the Philippines”.

The second strategic theme is “Sense of Progress”. It serves as the umbrella for these strategic priorities: “good governance”; “infrastructure: modern and competitive”; and “growth in real GDP per person”.

The third strategic theme is closely related to the first, and it goes by the name of “Sense of Community”. Under this umbrella are the following strategic priorities: “keep government, in partnership with the private sector, lean, effective and efficient”; “clean and green environment”; and “growth in productivity”.

The strategic themes are few—only three—thereby conferring the advantage of being relatively easy to remember. Moreover, they serve to underscore the strong links between several strategic priorities: fundamentally important as they all are, still they are so closely inter-connected with each other that they can and should be grouped together.

Manila, January 21, 2010

from his column “Swimming Against the Current,”

Manila Bulletin

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

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

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.

It would do us a great deal of good, as a nation, to remember and pay close, continuing attention on the things that unite us rather than on the many issues that divide us. Among the most basic unifying elements that bind us and bring us together are our shared values as a people.

What might these be?

In many gatherings, when we Filipinos pause and reflect on the ideals we aspire towards and which we hope are the values that we all can share with one another, two core values come up at the very top. The first is love of God; and the second is respect for the dignity of each person. The first one comes as no surprise: it is first, and in the minds of many Filipinos, it should be first. But the second one comes as a pleasant surprise. Given where we are coming from, with a long history of a feudal culture, which we are only gradually shedding, respect for the dignity of each person, no matter what a person’s station in life may be, is to be sure an ideal, but one which is often referred to as “too idealistic” in the sense that it is “too high and too up-there”. A surprise it may be, nonetheless, it is a very pleasant one: that it should be mentioned immediately after “love of God”.

Next come good governance and responsible citizenship. This two-some necessarily complements and mutually reinforces each other. One may say that one can not go very far without the other. Experience tells us that it is unrealistic for us to expect good governance unless we throw in responsible citizenship as its essential partner. No surprise here, considering what many of us have been complaining about and crying out to the highest heavens for.

Commitment to a culture of excellence, discipline and integrity comes naturally as a consequence. In our land, we face the challenge of rising above mediocrity, disorder, lack of system, and grime in many facets of our national life. Many of the vociferous complaints we hurl against each other, governors and governed alike, can be traced to the low standards of performance, operating systems, professionalism and honesty within both the public and private sectors. We do need to face up to those complaints, and it is high time that we commit to much higher standards that we actually observe in all aspects of life in our country.

In addition to cleaning up, we also have the additional challenge of improving and further enriching our environment—starting with the physical aspect, and therefore with our natural environment—as well as our culture. We have, for instance, so many beautiful elements of our culture; we should be proud of them. Moreover, we can build on them to reach even greater heights, where we can contribute even more positively to the enrichment of our national life as well as to the betterment of the wider world around us. Responsible stewardship in the preservation and enrichment of our environment and culture is a call to positive action, based on responsibility for what we have inherited and what we have been endowed with.

These five core values can be worded differently, depending on the group of Filipinos who come together and reflect on the foundations upon which we should base our efforts to further build and develop our nation. They capture, however, many of the ideals that many of us—perhaps the great majority of us—would like to uphold as we look at the many decades ahead, and work towards strengthening our republic, improving our nation in all key facets of life in our land, and developing our people by bestowing on them the genuine blessings of peace and progress.

Manila, January 14, 2010

from his column “Swimming Against the Current,”

Manila Bulletin