by Bro. Ben Quiñones

Father God, we bow down before you today in our individual capacities as stakeholders of the Philippine economy. We confess, Lord, that we have sinned against you. We confess that we have contributed to the decline of our national economy and pulled it down from a privileged position of being the second largest & wealthiest in Asia in the 1950s to that of being the sick man of Asia today.

As consumers, we have put our self-interest above the higher good of the nation. We coveted and patronized foreign and imported goods over our own local products. As a result, our labor-intensive local industries collapsed against the onslaught of competition from foreign companies. Jobs in our erstwhile factories have become scarce for our own people, forcing millions of our good workers to seek employment as domestic helpers abroad. Forgive us, Lord, for our selfishness, for our ignorance on and indifference to the social effects of our individual actions. Renew us Lord. Thank you for the blood of Jesus. Make us today socially responsible consumers who will always put God and country first as a standard basis for personal consumption.

As producers, we confess our selfishness. We are more interested in making profits than in the welfare of those who work for us and those who use our products. We marginalize our workers by giving them slave wages. We cheat our customers and charge unbelievably high prices even when we know ours are inferior goods. At the time when the Philippine government gave protection to local industries against foreign competition, we squandered the industry profits on extravagant, wasteful and decadent lifestyle. We borrowed from our government financial institutions and used the nation’s wealth in fattening import-dependent industries, while keeping local technologies and technical capabilities outdated and globally uncompetitive.

We confess, Lord, our individual and collective greed. We also confess our pretentiousness. We tried to show the World that we knew globalization much better than those who brought it to our shores. When forces of globalization were knocking at our nation’s door, we were among the first ones in Asia to remove the trade barriers and open our economy to greater influx of foreign goods. Forgive us Lord for our greed, forgive us for our hypocrisy. Renew us Lord. Thank you, Lord, for the blood of Jesus. Make us today socially responsible producers who will always put God and country first as a standard for producing goods.

As traders and service providers, we have minded our narrow self-interest and disregarded the higher social good. We took advantage of farmers by buying their products at low prices when we very well knew that supply shoots up at harvestime and farmers have no recourse but to dispose of their products in order to pay their obligations and provide for their family’s survival.

We lend money to producers at exorbitant interest rates, forcing many of them to sell their lands, if not their own children, just so that they could liquidate their debts. Forgive us, Lord, for our greed. Forgive our callousness. Renew us Lord. Thank you for the blood of Jesus. Make us today socially responsible service providers who will put God and country first as a standard basis for our service.

Lord, behold the youth of our Land. They are also stakeholders of the Philippine economy. What kind of an economy will they inherit? What kind of an economy are we the elders of the land leaving them behind? Forgive us, Lord, for not being good stewards of the resources you have entrusted us. Forgive us for not being good example to our youth. They have only known corruption, greed, and treachery from those who profess to be the leaders of this land.

We confess, Lord, our iniquity for way-leading our youth to perdition. We confess our lack of compassion for them. Forgive us Lord. Renew us. Lord, look at the youth who are standing for Jesus Christ. They are the true hope of our fatherland. Bless them Lord. Make a new thing in them Lord. When the iniquity of our past has only brought forth a desert, Lord make a way for our youth. When our selfishness has only brought forth a wasteland, Lord create streams for our youth. Make us all today socially responsible citizens who will put God and country first and bring back the dignity to one and all so that once more we Filipinos will rise up to make the world know our God is a good God, and His mercy endures forever.

To the only begotten Son of the living God, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, our Master and Savior, be honor, dominion, authority, praise, worship, glory forever and ever. Amen

By Jade Angelo Gascon

Among the problems that confront the Philippines today are economic insufficiency, lack of opportunities, increasing criminality, political unrest and environmental injustice. Many Christian churches and organizations recognize that they should play a role in mitigating the causes and effects of these problems. However, they often fall short in producing ideas and conjuring practicable solutions that would make them efficient agents of change on a social level. A lot of Christian churches and organizations usually lack mechanisms and manpower to come up with potent and concrete solutions that would address these problems mainly because of their inclination to spiritualize issues at the expense of “works” without which faith is dead.

CSRSME Chairman Mr. Ben Quiñones Jr. discusses bayanihan economy principles to a diverse group of people's organizations

The On Eagle’s Wings Foundation (OEWF) Christian in its values and foundation, held a consultation meeting on March 13, 2010 in cooperation with CSRSME Asia (Coalition of Socially Responsible Small and Medium Enterprises in Asia), and KAMMMPI (Kapisanan ng Magsasaka, Manggagawa at Magsasaka Inc. – Association of Farmers, Workers and Fishermen of the Philippines Inc.), in order to elaborate on the Foodbank project which aims to strengthen food security for the benefit of farmers and urban poor families.

The 313 participants (89 males, 224 females) came from various cities in MetroManila such as Caloocan, Makati, Manila, Parañaque, Pasay, Pasig, Quezon City and San Juan, and nearby provinces such as Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal.

Over 300 delegates participated in the consultation. Here they join the community singing.

They also represented 61 people’s organizations coming from diverse backgrounds: from transport groups to churches, microfinance groups, cooperatives, vendors’ associations and urban poor organizations.

Ptr. Ed De Guzman, Chairman of On Eagle’s Wings Development Foundation (Philippines) and Board Member of CSRSME Asia, exhorted delegates and organizers to pursue the Philippines’s prophetic destiny to be a blessed nation of God that will bless other nations as well by consecrating themselves to the purposes of God.

He also added that the diverse body of Christ in the Philippines must unite toward the fulfillment of this vision. And socially responsible organizations and cooperatives can also be used by the Lord to advance his Kingdom dominion.

Part of the program gave participants the opportunity to interact with panelists who are knowledgable on solidarity economy practices and CSRSME's advocacies. Among the panelists were Ptr. Ed De Guzman, Mr. Ben Quiñones Jr., entrepreneur Myrna Villanueva, and community leaders Ptr. Jun Pasagui and Ptr. Mike Cabahug

OEWF and CSRSME Asia, both socially responsible organizations, can be used by God to end poverty in the Philippines. A significant, concrete solution that the group offers are paradigm-shifting training courses that transform people’s mindsets into entrepreneurial and innovative ones. This kind of worldview empowers societies to end poverty.

In addition, OEWF offers sustained discipleship under its Social Entrepreneurship and Discipleship Program (SEDP) and the mentorship of socially responsible individuals. The Foodbank project is one of the avenues for entrepreneurial discipleship.

The Foodbank will seek to revolutionize the distribution of agricultural produce into urban communities by eliminating exploitative cartels and oppressive economic practices that have been salient features of Philippine agricultural economy.

With the help of another collaborating organization, the Shared Vision Cooperative (SVC), the Foodbank project shall form area coordination clusters that will strategize for and organize subsidiary Foodshops. The Foodshop Coordinators shall be trained in handling and managing the program, and in mobilizing communities that will unite to secure access to affordable agricultural products.

SVC’s Bayanihan Cash Card (BaCC) shall be instrumental in facilitating the Foodbank financial transactions and in mentoring both farmer producers and urban consumers to be wise financial stewards.

Microfinance groups OK (Opportunity Kauswagan) Bank, a founding member of the largest Christian social development network in the country, and ASKI (Alalay sa Kaunlaran sa Gitnang Luzon) have pledged support to the program by providing services such as deposits and loans and other personality improvement training.

Should the Foodbank project find success in the hands of socially responsible united communities, the world shall witness in the Philippines an unprecedented economic revolution initiated by Christians who are in loving pursuit of the cause of God for the Philippines.

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Everybody wants to be President.

On the eve of last day of filing for the 2010 polls, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has received 99 certificates of candidacy for president. Among them were a quantum physicist, a retired teacher, an insurance agent, some politicians, and many other characters ranging from genuine to Jokerish (and it’s the Heath Ledger-type!).

For many, it’s not easy to pinpoint who among those who run for office are sincere and who are just fooling around. But that’s secondary.

Supremely important is an electorate that is not fooling around with the leadership standard it upholds. More than ever before, Filipinos must be dead serious on not committing another mistake of bequeathing the reins of power to another two-faced megalomaniac who will treat the Philippines as his/her own moneymaking corporation.

After two EDSAs (and their corresponding triumphs and disappointments), we’re supposed to be wiser by now. But I’m afraid wisdom that depends on pure human information alone is frail. No matter how wisely we think we have voted, the Philippines would still head south if our concept of “voting wisely” precludes inquiring of God’s will.

God’s will is often sought on a personal level. “Who is God’s will for me to marry?” “What college course is God’s will for me to take?” “What career path is God’s will for me to tread?”

But we must realize that God also exercises His will on a national level (2 Chr 7:14). In the same manner that our cooperation is necessary for His will to be accomplished in our personal lives, there must also be collective national alignment to His purpose so that His will to snatch the Philippines from the quagmire it’s in would be accomplished.

Voting without regard for biblical standard of righteous (Pv 16:12) and just (1 Ki 10:9) leadership is to be trapped in the deception that the systemic corruption dragging the Philippines to hell is not a moral and spiritual issue as well.

It’s time we realize that our vote and God’s standards should be indivisible. Our national woes must be addressed on moral and spiritual levels, aside from practical ones. Practical solutions that do not bring about change to the human mindsets that run government institutions breed superficiality, insincerity, and, ultimately, temporality to the supposed transformation.

As we cast our votes in 2010, let them be decisions that are produced by serious inquiry of God’s will. Call it absurd. Call it unbelievable. But yes, seriously praying about who to vote for is a big step for change in the Philippines.

Being a volunteer and a participant of the Asian Forum for Solidarity Economy 2007 has enlarged my perspective. I have learned a new initiative called SOLIDARITY ECONOMY and that is what I’d like to tell you about. Not because I am a niece of Mr. Ben R. Quiñones, the event organizer, that automatically means I am widely informed about this topic. (Embarrassing as it seems, it’s quite the contrary). Since I learned to develop a hunger for knowledge, I kept an open mind to the discussions and whatever information that was available.

During the Asian Forum Stakeholders Assembly on October 20 2007, the last day of the Asian Forum, the delegates were asked how they understood Solidarity Economy. Though I am still a neophyte in this matter, and it seems to be a new concept in the field of economics, I would like to share with you how I understood Solidarity Economy and the role played by the Asian Forum in advancing it in this nation.

Solidarity Economy is an alternative economy which seeks to serve the greater good of the people. Market-oriented economy is “PROFIT-centered”, while Solidarity Economy is PEOPLE-centered. This contrast was amplified by former DILG Sec. Joey Lina during one of the Asian Forum sessions I attended.

Economics teaches us that stakeholders in an economy can be typified into four major groups – the investors, the producers, the service providers and the consumers. Since each group wants to obtain profit for itself, there exists a conflict of interests between them. The investor wants to lend money at a higher interest rate, but the producer would want to borrow at a lower interest rate. In turn, the producer wants to sell his produce at a high price while the consumer would haggle for a lower price. Self-interest oriented and profit-centered, it truly is.

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With the VisionQ's uncle and mentor, Mr. Ben Quiñones

Mr. Ben Quiñones conducted the Build Shared Vision (BSV) Workshop in Davao for  his nieces and nephews who are aspiring to be national leaders for a better Philippines. The two-day workshop was held in Royal Valley, Bangkal Davao City. Mr. Ben Quiñones taught the team the importance of developing a learning organization, discussed the different types of learning disabilities and helped them overcome these by providing solutions.

Meet the VisionQ team

In building their shared vision, Mr. Ben Quiñones introduced the functions of a storyteller, inquirer, facilitator and documentor. He then asked the team what is their vision for the Philippines. From that thought-provoking question, each member was able to come up with positive hopes for the country. Later the team considered possible steps to achieve their goal of a progressive, globally competitive nation having good governance with citizens living in unity, who have environmental awareness and are God-fearing .

Kaycee Quiñones commented that the workshop was just like an ice-breaker that she could easily share to friends. Everyone in the group agreed that it is doable. The cousins decided to call their team as VisionQ (Vision Quiñones. VisionQ can also be ” Vision Ko” or My Vision in Filipino, replacing “ko” by the letter Q). The team agreed to meet at least once a week to plan for the first BSVworkshop in Davao City on May 23-24, 2009.

Our national hero once said the youth is the hope of the motherland. The VisionQ team is committed to do something to contribute change.

Thus, there is hope for the country.

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by Paul Casuga

On March 5, 2009, the CSRSME Asia staff headed by Chairman Mr. Benjamin R. Quiñones, Jr. visited the Pinoy Pamilya Foundation’s (PPFI) financial centers in Calamba City, Laguna. During their visit, Mr. Quiñones talked about Building Shared Vision (BSV) with some 65 representatives from different PPFI financial centers in Calamba City and Los Baños, Laguna. Pastora Lenie Evangelista of PPFI, together with her volunteer workers and financial center representatives were also encouraged individually to share their own vision for a better Philippines.

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