Nicanor Perlas Platform

NICANOR PERLAS PLATFORMSIX PILLARS

My platform has six pillars. The first deals with eradicating the massive poverty,inequitable growth, lawlessness, and conflicts that plague our country. Our firstpillar aims to

Eradicate Poverty and Enhance Quality of Life

for all, through,among others, a vibrant broad-based economy, social justice and peace.The second addresses the pervasive corruption that is tearing the social fabric of the nation and rupturing the hearts and minds of Filipinos. Our second pillar therefore seeks to

Advance Moral and Effective Governance

in all institutionsof society and all situations in life.The third concerns itself with stopping the massive destruction of our ecologyand our environment. Our third pillar seeks to

Uphold the Integrity of Creation

and respectfully partner with it as our source of life.Our fourth pillar seeks to

Build Partnerships for Social Justice.

We want tointroduce a new approach to real participatory governance and authenticdemocracy. No one can solve the problems of the country alone… tayong lahatang kailangan upang mabago ang ating bansa. This means government workingtogether with civil society and business in the pursuit of social justice andcreating a better country.The fifth pillar strives to

Promote Creative Education and Inner Change.

Better schools, colleges and universities, drawing out the many talents, intelligences,and potentials of students, are crucial. Equally as important is self-directededucation and transformation. At the end of the day, it’s important to alsoaddress the factor of inner change—taking responsibility for changing our heartsand minds. No one can do our inner work for us. And there can be no genuinechange in a system or institution if the people who work there do not change.Depressed, apathetic, and poorly trained people cannot create visionary andhigh-performance organizations, much less a world-inspiring country. Individualand cultural transformation are the foundations of the other pillars.And then finally, the sixth pillar of the platform aims to

Mainstream VisionaryInitiatives.

There are thousands of promising initiatives throughout the country in

a wide variety of fields that already point the way forward to another, much better Philippines. We will reward innovation. We will systematically discover, magnifyand multiply these existing success stories.This platform with its six pillars recognizes that everything is interconnected andrequires a multidisciplinary approach. Ang lahat ng bagay ay magkaugnay.Reducing poverty, for example, is not simply about appropriate governmentpolicies that strengthen the economy, creates jobs and minimizes the adverseaspects of globalization. Poverty reduction also requires significant advances inpeace, culture, including education, health care, sanitation, clean water, housing,micro-finance, nutrition and of course, agriculture and asset reform amongothers.We are talking about a practical platform of sustainability that recognizes all of these connections. We cannot transform the system if the system is plagued withcorruption. But you cannot get rid of corruption if you don’t involve the citizenry inchanging behavior. And you cannot change if there’s no inner change.Everything is interrelated and systemic.

POLICIES AND PROGRAMS

Eradicate

Poverty and Enhance Quality of Life

Jobs and the Economy

Provide meaningful self and/or work employment for the economically poor asoutlined in the various policies and programs that follow below.Increases government resources for the sustainable modernization of agricultureand fisheries and place priority on agricultural policies and programs that willeradicate poverty.Accelerate the passage of a comprehensive land use for thecountry.Speed up the implementation of the Agrarian Reform Program onprivate lands.Provide, on a priority basis, agriculture-related support services toAgrarian Reform Communities including, but not limited to, newtechnologies, roads, credit, post-harvest facilities, and access to

broadband Internet services.Irrigate all rice lands using both large-scale irrigation infrastructureand artesian wells for small farms.Provide branding, packaging, and marketing services to farmersand fisherfolks to enhance their market penetration.Remove local monopolies and oligopolies that suppress the pricesof farm and fishery products and which extract usurious lending rates fromthe poor.Design, together with microfinance NGOs and banks, anagriculture-oriented micro-finance program that would receive theappropriate financial, technical, and guarantee support from thegovernment.Move towards strategic micro-finance where individual microenterprises (in both rural and urban areas) are interlinked vertically andhorizontally into new enterprise networks of larger value added on thebasis of mutual solidarity and benefit.Build upon existing micro-finance initiatives and set up new microor small industries based on strategic partnerships between academicinstitutions (which have pro-poor mature technologies that harness localresources), socially responsible businesses (which have the capability tomove mature technologies from the lab to the market place), governmentinstitutions (which can provide the necessary supportive policies andincentives) and NGOs (which can ensure the social and ecologicallyacceptability of the new micro-industries).Implement special adult education programs for the rural and urbanpoor that would improve their knowledge, creativity, planning, andentrepreneurial and management skills.(See also policies and programs in the section below on advancingthe Integrity of Creation.)Create macro-economic conditions conducive to the appropriate broad-basedand inclusive growth and development of the Philippine economy.Renegotiate Philippine commitments in the World TradeOrganization and other regional and global trade venues that are anti-poor.