A covenant with our President

MANILA, Philippines - Today, after his first hundred days in office, is not only a test of our President’s leadership but also a test of our love for our country. It is our moment of choice on how to play the game of nation-building differently since many of our old ways did not work for us.

After three months, I cannot measure President Noy according to the standards of his critics. I’m just happy that he has remained honest and unfazed in the face of crisis and criticism and even when some of his appointees have failed expectations. He will have to do his best, we will have to do ours.

Together, we can decide in this new season of hope to finally be free from poverty and corruption or to remain irreversibly a slave to them. To win the game or to forever be an underdog in the eyes of the world.

The challenge is for every responsible Filipino to begin to see himself as God’s answer to our country’s woes rather than simply depend on government leaders or leave everything to fate by not matching faith with action.

We need to grow our conviction that together we can, and must, end poverty and corruption in the Philippines.

I will repeat what I’ve said before: it is not enough that we have the most trusted president in recent history to start office, we must strive to be the most trustworthy people ourselves.

For the President to be a game-changer in a society where the rules are tilted against the small players, we must change our own game plan together with him.

No more scapegoats for us; enough of the blame-game. We must take responsibility.

No more cynicism; cynics dampen spirits. We must hope.

No more apathy; sympathy that is all talk will not feed the hungry. We must care.

No more fantasy; escape is not the way to prosper a country. We must work.

No more hypocrisy; no double standard of justice and morality. We must have integrity.

The liberation of this nation is not by dependence on a great leader but by demanding greatness in ourselves with our determination to match hope with hard work and sacrifice.

The ball is in our court and in the hands of everyone who loves our country.

The coach cannot win the game if his players will not play to win. We have been a country of bench warmers, it is now our time to shine. To win, we need a star team, not just a star player.

Today we are making this covenant as ordinary citizens with our President, to dedicate the next six years and the rest of our lives in making our society more just, our leaders more honest, our rich more generous and our poor more hopeful. With more care and better opportunities, many Filipinos will not want to remain poor.

Concretely, and with great urgency, this is our solemn vow:

1. We will strive to achieve meaningful change peacefully through partnership and friendship.

Walang Pilipinong kalaban.

Even when provoked or attacked we will try our best to avoid conflict.

People fight for power and money, armed with hate and violence. We will fight for our country and the poor with love as our weapon and peace as our passion.

We will not be afraid of our own people. The rich are not enemies of the poor, nor Christians the foes of Muslims.

We will continue to overcome our fear and go to more dangerous slums like Bagong Silang to help make it safer, and to conflict areas like Sulu to make it more peaceful.

Today we are transforming over 2,000 communities, tomorrow we hope to be in all 44,000 barangays in the country with the support of our LGUs.

The national government can trigger the building of homes in the hundreds of thousands every year if LGUs and private land owners can provide the land and do the site development so the GK formula can be empowered to effectively take 5 million families out of poverty in this decade.

With the President’s encouragement of government agencies to support us, we can rally more people to do more.

We will work closely with HUDCC, DSWD and NDCC to help relocate victims of calamities and conflict. Our neglect of the poor is often the cause of insurgency in the countryside and squatting in the cities.

2. We will strive to always tell the truth.

Walang Pilipinong sinungaling.

Even when it is convenient or profitable to tell a lie, we will make every effort to remain honest.

In our corrupt setting, integrity is everything. Truth is always our best defense against deception.

We will honor those who stand by the truth even when it is difficult or unpopular.  Like our volunteers in Eastern Samar, Southern Leyte, Batangas, Quezon and many difficult areas in the country who stayed their course to help the poor at great sacrifice despite efforts to discredit our cause.

Likewise we will stand by you all the way President Noy as long as you remain honest and you weed out those around you who are not.

We will mobilize our nationwide network to support DPWH and other government departments in their campaign to remove institutionalized corruption.

This must be clear to all of us: we can only end corruption in our country if we ourselves have the courage not to be corrupt.

3. We will always aim for the greater good.

Walang Pilipinong masama.

Even when wronged on all sides, we will try our best to do what is right.

The big good that we can do together will eventually overcome the wrongs that abound around us. By always connecting with the good in people, including tax collectors and politicians, we will bring out their potential to create more good.

I saw this on my trip to Mindanao last October 1. It was awesome to witness the capacity of our public officials, starting with the governor, to generate so much good to help landslide victims and rebel returnees in Campostela valley. In one event, they were able to raise enough pledges for 300 houses and 2.8 million pesos in cash donations. I was joined there by the governor of Camsur who is matching sports and lifestyle tourism for the rich with the development of our communities in his province for social tourism, which is a growing global trend.

Aggressive private public partnership is the only way that sustainable poverty reduction and ultimate elimination becomes possible despite present birth rates. Without this forward and determined intervention more families are born into poverty every year than the ability of national and local government to deal with.

It can be done when there is a transcendent good that everyone can trust enough to rise above personal rivalries and partisanships.

We offer ourselves to be the President’s bridge of trust to the people on the ground, to private partners who want to help, to LGUs who can deliver.

4. We will inspire heroic sacrifice in every Filipino.

Bawat Pilipino Bayani.

This nation will rise if we look beyond self-interest and avoid envy to seek the greater good. Our crab mentality must end for all of us to get out of the pot of poverty together. We must encourage more Filipinos to be heroes like Efren Penaflorida, not simply appreciate him or even envy his popularity.

We hope that our homes will breed more heroes and our universities will graduate more patriots who will stake their future in our country.

Today we have thousands of volunteers for nation-building under our GK1MB program. With the support of our President, we hope to raise millions tomorrow.

5. We will create more enlightened wealth with a bigger social profit.

Walang Pilipinong nagpapaiwan.

We will work for a radical mind-set change in our campuses to graduate more job creators,not just job seekers, for the best of our business graduates to start a business and not only aspire for employment abroad, to create wealth in our country and not make already rich countries richer.

This is the goal of our Center for Social Innovation (CSI) in partnership with the Ateneo School of Management and 24 top business schools in the country and CHED: to develop social enterprises where young entrepreneurs are nurtured in an ecosystem that will help them fly world-class Filipino brands that will create wealth from the ground up with our communities as massive production platforms and distribution centers.

This is complimented by other economic programs for sustainability of our existing communities and their neighboring areas.

Our BayanAnihan food sufficiency program is working closely with the Department of Agriculture to sustain our existing 500 farms and to build 500 more every year for the next 6 years in our “Goodbye Gutom” campaign. They will help us grow local ingredients for popular brands like the ube of Selecta and the citronella and lemongrass of Human Nature.

Our Gkonomics team is preparing for a big Christmas bazaar on October 24 at Rockwell tent with livelihood products from our villages nationwide in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry.

Our first Enchanted Farm, a 14 hectare Village University for the incubation of social businesses under CSI, will open in early January in Angat, Bulacan. It will incubate social enterprises, conduct camps for business, environment and wellness and promote social tourism in Central Luzon. The next sites are ready for development in Dolores, Eastern Samar, San Vicente, Palawan, Butuan City, Agusan del Norte and Victorias, Negros Occidental.

6. We will not leave anyone behind.

Walang Pilipinong nang-iiwan.

We will encourage our doctors and nurses abroad to support sustainable health programs in the poor towns where they came from in addition to the medical missions that they have been conducting regularly. This is an auspicious time for us with a dedicated Health Secretary supporting our campaign for Philhealth and our GK Kalusugan team in the US creating partnerships on public health with respected schools like UCLA and Stanford and UST at home.

More Filipinos are starting to understand our resolve: to build a strong nation, we will not leave the weak behind.

7. We will bet all to win the game.

Lahat tayo tataya.

The best way for us to rise is to see our people as our greatest wealth and our country as the source of our highest pride. The least deserve the best from us, our nation demands our highest devotion.

We must all see nation-building as the best game in town, played with more passion than basketball or watched with more fanaticism than Magkaribal.

Mr President, we are ready to start our patriot games with you and we commit to you that we will play to win, without cheating or hurting anyone.

With you, we will inspire more to build their Field of Dreams in our country like the one in Smokey Mountain in what was once a garbage heap.

With you, we will restore our forest cover, protect our underground aquifer, build more marine sanctuaries and become the marvel of the world in responsible global citizenship.

With you, we will create a culture of caring and sharing, of excellence and hard work for every Filipino to live with dignity and honor.

With God’s help, please lead us to victory.