Friday, July 1, 2016

FREEDOM FOR GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

(Inaugural Message of Vice-Governor V. Dennis M. Socrates, 30.VI.2016)

My friends:

Kilala po ang ating lalawigan bilang Last Frontier ng Pilipinas.  Ngunit ang “frontier” ay nangangahulugan ding tayo ay nasa liblib; nasa dulo ng kabihasnan.  Ibig sabihin, mahirap ang ating kalagayan.

Sa labas ng Puerto Princesa, masasabing maralita ang higit na nakararaming Palaweño.  Mahigit sa animnapung porsiyento ng mga tahanan sa Palawan ay walang elektrisidad.  Maraming barangay pa ang hindi inaabot ng sasakyang pampubliko.  Sa maraming barangay pa rin, iniigib pa mula sa mga balon ang tubig na iniinom at ginagamit sa mga tahanan: parang namumuhay pa sa Stone Age.

Nagkaroon po tayo ng pag-asang baguhin ang kalalagayang ito nang pumasok sa pulitika ang isang global na kapitan ng industriya at pilantropong si Manong Pepito Alvarez; at sa kursunada ng lubhang nakararaming Palaweño ay nahalal siyang gobernador noong 2013.

Ang sabi po natin sa simula ng kanyang panunungkulan:  The present political leadership of the Provincial Government of Palawan is committed to bringing our province and people out of that poverty.  Under the no-nonsense management of Governor JCA, we hope to leapfrog, to polevault, to fly, from Fourth World to First World in nine years.

Hindi po nabigo ang pag-asang iyan.  Sa tatlong taon pa lang na lumipas, maraming kabutihan na ang naganap.

Hindi po sukat na banggitin ko rito ang mga programa at proyekto ng pamahalaang panlalawigan.  Ang punto ko lang po ay ito ang ating direksyon.  Tayo po ay nasa tamang landas.  Sa pagtutulungan ng lahat, tumatakbo na nang mabilis ang tren ng pagbabago tungo sa kaunlaran.  Ipagpatuloy po natin ito.

Nagpapasalamat po ako at nabigyan tayong muli ng pagkakataong makalahok sa pagsasakatuparan ng pangitaing ito.  Nagpapasalamat din po ako kay Governor JCA sa kanyang walang-sawang malasakit at pagpupunyaging iangat ang antas ng kabuhayan ng lahat ng Palaweño.

Thank you, Governor JCA, for your visionary zeal and indefatigable leadership.  We wish you all the best on your birthday and for always.  We pray that God will grant you many more years of doing good for all Palaweños,  your co-provincianos of choice.

My friends:  Today, as we begin a new phase in our journey, we are called upon to re-affirm our commitment to fulfilling that dream of a First-World Palawan.  And as we re-affirm that commitment, we are impelled to reflect, once again, on the imperatives of development in the context of our era of globalization.  Habang kumikilos na isakatuparan ang pangitain ng isang maunlad na Palawan, patuloy din po nating pagmunimunihan, patiningin ang pag-unawa sa kaunlarang inaasam.

Siyempre po, ang kaunlarang tinitingnan natin ay sustainable development; ibig sabihin, sa wika ng Strategic Environmental Plan for Palawan, the improvement in the quality of life of present and future generations through the complementation of development and environmental protection activities, “ang pagtaas ng antas ng kabuhayan ng kasalukuyan at mga susunod pang salinlahi, sa pagtatalaban ng mga gawaing pang-kaunlaran at pag-iingat sa kalikasan” (Sec. 3 [2], RA 7611).

In his turn-of-the-millenium book of that title, the journalist Thomas Friedman invented the metaphor of The Lexus and the Olive Tree to define the basic challenge of this era of globalization, which is finding the point of equilibrium between development and tradition, between “the Lexus and the olive tree”.  This is like saying “sustainable development” where “sustainability” or conservation should refer not just to the physical environment but also to our culture, historical traditions, and so on.

As Friedman puts it, “Olive trees are important.  They represent everything that roots us, anchors us, identifies us and locates us in this world—whether it be belonging to a family, a community, a tribe, a nation, a religion or, most of all, a place called home.”

The Lexus, on the other hand, as a brand of luxury cars, “represents an equally fundamental, age-old human drive—the drive for sustenance, improvement, prosperity and modernization—as it is played out in today’s globalized economy”.  The challenge of our time is to strike and maintain that balance between the need for conservation and the need for development—to find the slope of sustainability—which is not static, not a constant, but in perpetual flux.  It is dynamic.  In short, what we seek is “authentic human development;” which means, in the words of Blessed Pope Paul VI, “the development of each man and of the whole man” (Populorum Progressio, No. 14).  Ang atin pong hinahangad na tunay na kaunlaran ay ang kaunlaran ng bawat tao sa kanyang kabuuan bilang tao.

In another turn-of-the-millenium essay, the economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen tells us that Development is “a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy.”

Not all of us would agree with everything Amartya Sen may have said, but I believe that, yes, we can all admit that the statement contains a profound truth:  Development can be understood as freedom.  It is people-empowerment.  Ang kaunlaran ay pagpapayabong ng kalayaan ng tao.

And freedom should be understood here not only as the freedom of material man—not only freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom from disease—but freedom of the whole man, of the unity of a spiritual soul and material body.  Hindi lamang sa materyal na aspeto kundi sa kabuuan ng tao bilang espiritwal-na-diwa-sa-materyal-na-pangangatawan.  Ang tunay na kalayaan ng tao-bilang-tao ay tumutukoy sa kakayahan nating ituon ang sarili sa mabuti; ang ating kakayahang piliin, ibigin, ang mabuti; ang ating kakayahang ituon ang sarili sa huling dapat kahantungan. Authentic human freedom is our capacity to love.  It is our capacity to direct ourselves, ultimately, to God.

Thank you for bearing with me.  Maraming salamat po at isang mapagpalayang araw sa inyong lahat.

O.C.P.A.J.P.M.