Senatorial Candidate
By
Philippines
February 15, 2010
Emailed for posting by Basilio Valdehuesa
Manuel (Manny) Valdehuesa
Manny Valdehuesa was born in Cagayan de Oro, Northern Mindanao, 17 June 1939 and is married to Marita F. Mier of Zambales and Baler. The couple have 2 sons, Ariston and Basilio.
A graduate of Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan in Political Science and of the MBA program at Ateneo de Manila, he was a scholar at New Yorks Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs and studied economics at the Henry George School of Social Science.
Manny was active in the reform movement since the 1960s and was secretary-general of the Christian Social Movement until the martial law period.
Under then-Vice President Pelaez and Senators Manglapus and Manahan, Manny was active in political organizations and campaign operations, and later took part in NAMFREL and the Bishops Businessmens Conference.
While traveling widely as part of his work as a UNESCO/United Nations director, Mannys interest in politics led him to observe the American presidential system as well as the European and Israeli parliamentary models. He returned in 1998 to revive his childhood interest in ranching (at a farm in Bukidnon) while writing for newspapers.
In 2004 he received the UNICEF-PPI Award for Most Outstanding Column on Children (community category) and went on to write a book on the factors that shape our politics: Trapo Governance and the Cha Cha Conspiracy: More Power to Those in Power, None for the People, published by Cacho Publishing House (National Book Store) in 2005.
Today, Manny is president and national convenor of Gising Barangay Movement, Inc. (formerly Task Force Good Governance), an advocacy for empowering the grassroots. His newest book, A Nation of Zombies: Powerless Grassroots, Clueless Elites and the Cycle of Corruption in the Philippines, was recently launched by the Capitol University Press.
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Bong D. Fabe writes on
Manuel Valdehuesa and his new book Nation of Zombies
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITYAlarmed by the privatization of the government by traditional politicians, the founder and president of the advocacy group Gising Barangay Movement (GBM) has launched a book that tries to awaken the elites to take their place in history and rescue government from the clutches of the trapos.
I was alarmed at how government is being privatized by the trapos who then appropriate its resources and services for personal and family aggrandizement and vainglorious ambition, writer and former diplomat Manuel Manny Valdehuesa, Jr. told this reporter why he wrote the book A Nation of Zombies (Powerless Grassroots, Clueless Elite, and the Cycle of Corruption in the Philippines), which was launched recently at the Capitol University (CU) Museum of Three Cultures.
Valdehuesa warned that if the Filipinos continue to let the trapos control government and surrender governance to them, the Philippines will not attain its dream of becoming a tiger economy but will instead become a failed state.
Valdehuesa, who has been tapped to run for senator in 2010 by the Ang Kapatiran party, tackled what no other author or writers has written beforediagnosing the countrys problem and prescribing its medicine at the same time.
Our hope lies in the awakening of the elite to rescue their community or barangay from trapo control, he stressed.
A Nation of Zombies, which is published by the Capitol University (CU) Press, focused on the basic unit of societythe barangay.
In explaining the title of the book, Valdehuesa said that like a zombie, which the dictionary defines as a person who seems to have no mind or no will; as used in horror films: a mummy or a creature that is manipulated at will by its controller, the Filipinos are being manipulated by those who are in power, the traditional politicians.
The Filipino electorate today labors under the spell of wrongful politics, a spell so pervasive that it eviscerates decency and morality in otherwise honorable people, robbing them of volition and autonomy. This spell is cast by unscrupulous political opportunists and predators that use public largesse for personal aggrandizement and dynasty-building. In the process, they reduce the unsuspecting and the nave to virtual automatons without strength or will to resist. Capitalizing on the poverty, powerlessness and political immaturity of the Filipino, they bastardize democracy and bend the system to their will. They turn the masses into political zombiesvoting as importuned or programmed by patronage, he eloquently said.
But Valdehuesa said that there is a solution to this prevailing problem: confronting what keeps the grassroots spellbound.
To do so is to require an awakening, a consciousness of responsible citizenship, a sense of community and an assertive brand of sovereignty, he said.
According to Valdehuesa, the elite are the missing element in governance, which is why traditional politicians continue to bastardize our democracy and politics through patronage politics.
The attention of the middle and upper classes is the missing element in local governance. Without them, self-governance or autonomy remains theoretical. Government and society are the poorer for the absence of the educated or professional classes in local affairs. They are the role models, but they do not serve as the exemplars of responsible citizenship in the community, he said.
He explained his focus on the barangay: Amending the behavior of the polity is not an easy task. It is only attainable if autonomy or self-governance is institutionalized in the barangay, which is the real locus of the grassroots. People must learn to view the grassroots as including themselves (especially the educated or the professional)since every Filipino lives in a barangay.
The base of our political structure is the barangay and its neighborhood. This is what everyone refers to as the grassroots. It is where the power is supposed to reside in our democracy because it is where the people are As inhabitants of the barangay, we are its stakeholders. If we feel powerless and do not take action, it is because we do not recognize the inherent power we havea power we can wield in place, right where we reside. This power is not granted from above, nor is it conferred by law or fiat. It has always been with us since the beginning of our nationhood, to be used or employed at will. If we have not been conscious of that, it is only because we have been looking in the wrong direction, he said.
Valdehuesa has served the government in the past both in the national and international scene in various capacitiesdeputy presidential adviser (undersecretary) for constitutional reform in 2004; vice chairman of the Local Government Academy (2002-2004); director at the Development Academy of the Philippines (1975-1987), and administrator of the 1971 Constitutional Convention.
He was also the UNESCO director for Asia and the Pacific and concurrently the sub-regional communication adviser for Central and West Asia (1983-1985); a member of the Philippine Mission to the UN (1987-1992); manager of the Philippine Center-New York (1989-1998); secretary-general of the Association of South East Asian Publishers (1980-1983) and secretary-general of the Aquino Administrations peace negotiating panel for Mindanao and the Cordilleras in 1987.
Praising the book, Action Demokratiko president Sonia M. Roco said that what Valdehuesa did in writing the book is mirror to us in the context of our countrys history using his scrutinizing and analytic eyes, expressed through his unique craft of the pen.
Former Senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr. a good friend of the author, also praised the Zombie book:
This book about trapo politics and our peoples apathy and disconnect from nationhood is a must read for those in power, those who wish to be in political power and even those who wish to initiate a sea of change for a better society and country. The wide range of research, experience and attention conducted by Manny Valdehuesa on what ails our society and people and how we can still recover from our sorry state focus on the fundamental unit of our society and government: the Barangay.
Eric Manalang, president of the Ang Kapatiran Party also praised the book, which is he said is a call for responsible citizenship, for a sense of community that alone can assure the common good, and for an assertive brand of sovereignty to compel transparency, accountability and good governance on all levels of the bureaucracy. It is a timely topic for our times.
A Nation of Zombies (Powerless Grassroots, Clueless Elite, and the Cycle of Corruption in the Philippines) will also be launched Thursday, November 12, 2009 at the Maryhill School of Theology in New Manila, Quezon City from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. (Bong D. Fabe).
Manuel (Manny) Valdehuesa
By
Philippines
February 15, 2010
Emailed for posting by Basilio Valdehuesa
Manuel (Manny) Valdehuesa
A graduate of Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan in Political Science and of the MBA program at Ateneo de Manila, he was a scholar at New Yorks Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs and studied economics at the Henry George School of Social Science.
Manny was active in the reform movement since the 1960s and was secretary-general of the Christian Social Movement until the martial law period.
Under then-Vice President Pelaez and Senators Manglapus and Manahan, Manny was active in political organizations and campaign operations, and later took part in NAMFREL and the Bishops Businessmens Conference.
While traveling widely as part of his work as a UNESCO/United Nations director, Mannys interest in politics led him to observe the American presidential system as well as the European and Israeli parliamentary models. He returned in 1998 to revive his childhood interest in ranching (at a farm in Bukidnon) while writing for newspapers.
In 2004 he received the UNICEF-PPI Award for Most Outstanding Column on Children (community category) and went on to write a book on the factors that shape our politics: Trapo Governance and the Cha Cha Conspiracy: More Power to Those in Power, None for the People, published by Cacho Publishing House (National Book Store) in 2005.
Today, Manny is president and national convenor of Gising Barangay Movement, Inc. (formerly Task Force Good Governance), an advocacy for empowering the grassroots. His newest book, A Nation of Zombies: Powerless Grassroots, Clueless Elites and the Cycle of Corruption in the Philippines, was recently launched by the Capitol University Press.
---------------------------------------
Bong D. Fabe writes on
Manuel Valdehuesa and his new book Nation of Zombies
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITYAlarmed by the privatization of the government by traditional politicians, the founder and president of the advocacy group Gising Barangay Movement (GBM) has launched a book that tries to awaken the elites to take their place in history and rescue government from the clutches of the trapos.
I was alarmed at how government is being privatized by the trapos who then appropriate its resources and services for personal and family aggrandizement and vainglorious ambition, writer and former diplomat Manuel Manny Valdehuesa, Jr. told this reporter why he wrote the book A Nation of Zombies (Powerless Grassroots, Clueless Elite, and the Cycle of Corruption in the Philippines), which was launched recently at the Capitol University (CU) Museum of Three Cultures.
Valdehuesa warned that if the Filipinos continue to let the trapos control government and surrender governance to them, the Philippines will not attain its dream of becoming a tiger economy but will instead become a failed state.
Valdehuesa, who has been tapped to run for senator in 2010 by the Ang Kapatiran party, tackled what no other author or writers has written beforediagnosing the countrys problem and prescribing its medicine at the same time.
Our hope lies in the awakening of the elite to rescue their community or barangay from trapo control, he stressed.
A Nation of Zombies, which is published by the Capitol University (CU) Press, focused on the basic unit of societythe barangay.
In explaining the title of the book, Valdehuesa said that like a zombie, which the dictionary defines as a person who seems to have no mind or no will; as used in horror films: a mummy or a creature that is manipulated at will by its controller, the Filipinos are being manipulated by those who are in power, the traditional politicians.
The Filipino electorate today labors under the spell of wrongful politics, a spell so pervasive that it eviscerates decency and morality in otherwise honorable people, robbing them of volition and autonomy. This spell is cast by unscrupulous political opportunists and predators that use public largesse for personal aggrandizement and dynasty-building. In the process, they reduce the unsuspecting and the nave to virtual automatons without strength or will to resist. Capitalizing on the poverty, powerlessness and political immaturity of the Filipino, they bastardize democracy and bend the system to their will. They turn the masses into political zombiesvoting as importuned or programmed by patronage, he eloquently said.
But Valdehuesa said that there is a solution to this prevailing problem: confronting what keeps the grassroots spellbound.
To do so is to require an awakening, a consciousness of responsible citizenship, a sense of community and an assertive brand of sovereignty, he said.
According to Valdehuesa, the elite are the missing element in governance, which is why traditional politicians continue to bastardize our democracy and politics through patronage politics.
The attention of the middle and upper classes is the missing element in local governance. Without them, self-governance or autonomy remains theoretical. Government and society are the poorer for the absence of the educated or professional classes in local affairs. They are the role models, but they do not serve as the exemplars of responsible citizenship in the community, he said.
He explained his focus on the barangay: Amending the behavior of the polity is not an easy task. It is only attainable if autonomy or self-governance is institutionalized in the barangay, which is the real locus of the grassroots. People must learn to view the grassroots as including themselves (especially the educated or the professional)since every Filipino lives in a barangay.
The base of our political structure is the barangay and its neighborhood. This is what everyone refers to as the grassroots. It is where the power is supposed to reside in our democracy because it is where the people are As inhabitants of the barangay, we are its stakeholders. If we feel powerless and do not take action, it is because we do not recognize the inherent power we havea power we can wield in place, right where we reside. This power is not granted from above, nor is it conferred by law or fiat. It has always been with us since the beginning of our nationhood, to be used or employed at will. If we have not been conscious of that, it is only because we have been looking in the wrong direction, he said.
Valdehuesa has served the government in the past both in the national and international scene in various capacitiesdeputy presidential adviser (undersecretary) for constitutional reform in 2004; vice chairman of the Local Government Academy (2002-2004); director at the Development Academy of the Philippines (1975-1987), and administrator of the 1971 Constitutional Convention.
He was also the UNESCO director for Asia and the Pacific and concurrently the sub-regional communication adviser for Central and West Asia (1983-1985); a member of the Philippine Mission to the UN (1987-1992); manager of the Philippine Center-New York (1989-1998); secretary-general of the Association of South East Asian Publishers (1980-1983) and secretary-general of the Aquino Administrations peace negotiating panel for Mindanao and the Cordilleras in 1987.
Praising the book, Action Demokratiko president Sonia M. Roco said that what Valdehuesa did in writing the book is mirror to us in the context of our countrys history using his scrutinizing and analytic eyes, expressed through his unique craft of the pen.
Former Senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr. a good friend of the author, also praised the Zombie book:
This book about trapo politics and our peoples apathy and disconnect from nationhood is a must read for those in power, those who wish to be in political power and even those who wish to initiate a sea of change for a better society and country. The wide range of research, experience and attention conducted by Manny Valdehuesa on what ails our society and people and how we can still recover from our sorry state focus on the fundamental unit of our society and government: the Barangay.
Eric Manalang, president of the Ang Kapatiran Party also praised the book, which is he said is a call for responsible citizenship, for a sense of community that alone can assure the common good, and for an assertive brand of sovereignty to compel transparency, accountability and good governance on all levels of the bureaucracy. It is a timely topic for our times.
A Nation of Zombies (Powerless Grassroots, Clueless Elite, and the Cycle of Corruption in the Philippines) will also be launched Thursday, November 12, 2009 at the Maryhill School of Theology in New Manila, Quezon City from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. (Bong D. Fabe).