YOUR Excellencies, members of the diplomatic corps, friends from the United Nations agencies and development-aid partners, fellow Cabinet members and representatives of Philippine government agencies, friends.
A pleasant evening to everyone… First, I’d like to thank the BusinessMirror, its publisher T. Anthony C. Cabangon and the chairman of the Aliw Media Group, his brother D. Edgard A. Cabangon, for inviting me to address tonight’s distinguished roster of guests for the country’s first-ever—and only—recognition awards for those countries and development-aid agencies that have joined hands with the Philippines in pursuing sustainable social and economic development.
No doubt, MISSION: PHL, the BusinessMirror Envoys&Expats Awards is a remarkable undertaking, and a challenging one. I congratulate those who worked behind the scenes, since late 2017, to midwife such a difficult and significant undertaking.
But no, I did not set aside a busy schedule to join you tonight. I marked this day’s event as one that no other appointment could displace. Not least, because I was present at the creation of the BusinessMirror that, Anton here said, would be the biggest newspaper in the country. It is, at least in size and, certainly, in intelligence. But I could not miss this event for the chance to link back to a friendship with a most remarkable man—the inspiration behind this recognition award: the late Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, former ambassador to Laos and former chairman emeritus of BusinessMirror.
It was his brainchild: the BusinessMirror’s Envoys&Expats section. It would serve the springboard for tonight’s recognition awards. Ambassador Cabangon Chua saw in Envoys&Expats a platform for ideas, aspirations, plans and programs of the diplomatic community for a better Philippines. He appreciated the richness of the stories behind concrete programs and projects that gave flesh to, and enlivened the socioeconomic, humanitarian and cultural partnerships between the Philippines and the rest of the world.
Truth to tell, making the average Filipino aware of these efforts and their significance in helping achieve national development is a tough task. These are not—at first, second, and worse yet, third blush—what you could describe as “sexy” stories; these are the stuff that an Internet-addicted public will immediately regret clicking after a one-second glance at the screen.
Yet here we are, more than a year from the official launch of MISSION: PHL, on this culminating night, giving due recognition to the development efforts of countries represented by their embassies, as well as bilateral and multilateral development-aid partners.
If this initiative had been done, say, two or three decades ago, it would not have made so much sense, nor created much of an impact, for the story of development cooperation and the Philippines, which was still a work in progress—and it still is—for many, many years. And it was marked by hard but crucial lessons for all concerned.
On the one hand, the countries, along with development-aid agencies and multilateral institutions which extended the aid; and, on the other hand, the receiving country, the Philippines, its bureaucracy and the people who are the ultimate target of assistance: indeed, everyone with a stake in development cooperation—worked together for the highest good and in the most cost-efficient, sustainable manner possible. They all contributed to the story that is finally being pieced together in a coherent manner tonight and its result given proper due.
The little I know about development aid is that it is a great deal of money, though nothing that a country cannot provide for itself; and quite a lot of talk, most of which no country could know about on its own. Behind it is a philosophy of development that is behind the most recent success story today: China’s. Don’t reinvent the wheel or struggle at great cost and much loss of precious time to learn to the way to do things better that is already known elsewhere and only has to be accessed, adapted and adopted. There is a long story here and the evening is short. So let me conclude with two key points:
First, I wish to convey our heartfelt gratitude to the members of the diplomatic corps who represent the peoples who have been, through a long time, the Filipinos’ constant friends, as well as the multilateral and bilateral development-aid agencies that have journeyed with us in the past half century to find better ways to ask for and use aid for sustainable development.
Second, I want to underscore, that in all the years that we were subject of ODA reviews, it is obvious that development cooperation is a shared accountability. It is neither something that a donor country or institution alone can dictate, nor a recipient country or people can demand for unilaterally. It arises from a shared vision by peoples that, as members of the community of nations, are motivated solely by the desire to help uplift the lives of other people; and to manage differences between those two in the best and most productive way possible. Because development assistance, despite the bad and baseless rap it’s gotten, is not about getting one over the one who needs the help or gives the help. It is about working together to get one over the problems that keep a people down and frustrate the people who want to help them.
The story of development cooperation is many decades old. And it is a continuing and evolving story—one made up as it goes along. But, at least for tonight, it is a story more coherently and comprehensively told by the efforts of the BusinessMirror’s Mission: PHL, Envoys&Expats Awards. Ending Part One and starting the first chapter of a second part, which I think will be a thin volume; because the story of development should soon be coming to its end as we cross over not too long from now into a developed nation. And then another story will begin of the Philippines as a major donor nation. For there is no return on investment, no recompense for good deeds done, that is so satisfying as that which comes of giving with no thought of return.
I hope the excellent cooperation that has marked this narrative—extended by the embassies; by the aid agencies; by the Cabinet implementing departments and the BusinessMirror’s partners in the Mission: PHL panel from academe, civil society, the private sector, youth, the National Economic and Development Authority, as well as the Department of Foreign Affairs—will continue to mark the shared accountability integral to development cooperation, as peoples and governments continue to pursue human progress. With, to paraphrase a song that dates us all, “a little help from our friends.”