CHAIRMAN FRANCISCO T. DUQUE III
OCTOBER 21, 2015
Our distinguished guests from the Philippine public and private sector; friends and panelists who have travelled a long way to share with us their thoughts and ideas on governance; and of course, honoured delegations from the public sector institutions we will formally be recognizing this afternoon—welcome to this historic awarding ceremony.
It has been an eventful past few months for us at the Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA), together with our co-convenors, the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) and the National Competitiveness Council (NCC). But we cannot forget that this breakout period in Philippine reform is the result of many years of hard and patient work on the part of government institutions that have responded willingly to the call for transformation.
We are happy to see that this has yielded fresh faces in governance—from the level of top leadership; to the Technical Working Groups, Offices for Strategy Management, and Multi-Sector Governance Councils; to ordinary citizens that have risen up from the grassroots to take up the cudgels for lasting change.
If there is one thing you should take away from this occasion, let it be this—that we the convenors speak to you today from a position of humble gratitude. Bringing the Islands of Good Governance to life has demanded much of us, with each step forward proving to be more difficult than the last. But we are certain it has demanded so much more from you, our dear partners. So please allow us to thank you for bringing hope not only to the people in this room, but also to those institutions, communities, and individuals in whose lives you have made a difference through good governance.
It is for this that we honour you today as models of sustainable transformation at par with global standards of governance. To this end, it is my privilege to unveil before you the token we have chosen to recognize all of these ideas and actions, in keeping with the profound message of breaking through the darkness of outside pressures to shed light on true progress.
Ladies and gentlemen, for the Philippines’ first Islands of Good Governance—THE LIGHTHOUSE MEDALLION.