Nicanor Perlas Biography

 Summary of Nick's Biography

Awards (Top three awards, among other awards)

The Right Livelihood Award or the Alternative Nobel Prize Nick Perlas is only one of two Filipinos (Walden Bello) who has been given this highly coveted global award. The award is given for "outstanding vision and work on behalf of the planet and it's people. It is today’s most distinguished award for courage and social transformation. Other notable recipients are David Lange, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Leonardo Boff, world renowned theoretician of liberation theology, Petra Kelly, co-founder of the German Greens and member of the German Parliament, and Wangari Maathai, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.  Other prominent recipients are David Suzuki, Vandana Shiva and Bill Mollison.



The United Nations Global 500 Award

The UN’s highest award for the Environment. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established the Global 500 Roll of Honour in 1987 to recognize the environmental achievements of individuals and organizations around the world. Other prominent awardees are Nobel Prize winners Wangari Maathai and former U.S President Jimmy Carter, French explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, former Prime Minister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland, and former Prime Minister of Britain Margaret Thatcher.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award for Exemplary Governance.  "The Ramon Magsaysay Award is given to persons who address issues of human development in Asia with courage and creativity, and in doing so have made contributions which have transformed their societies for the better.”  Other recipients are Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno and business tycoon John Gokongwei.


Unrivaled Track Record
1.    Expert and vital consultant to influential institutions of government, international bodies, global agencies and civil society organizations, among others, the:

• Aquino Government as Technical Advisor to the Presidential Commission on the Bataan Nuclear Plant. Mr. Perlas played a pivotal role to the government’s decision to mothball the troubled Plant, despite it being very near completion, and having cost $2.1 billion;
• Ramos Government through his critical leadership in the Pesticides Technical Advisory Committee, which role was decisive in the consequent banning of 32 of the most damaging pesticides and government’s investment of P760 million in integrated pest management, an achievement that has far-reaching effects to Philippine agriculture and the ecology;
• Ramos Government, as principal technical writer and key formulator of Philippine Agenda 21 (“PA21”), a pioneering framework on development and a counter-weight on trade liberalization. The PA21 has been characterized by former President Ramos as the most consultative policy document in post-martial law and is still the recognized blueprint for sustainable development in the country;
• Philippine Council for Sustainable Development as Civil Society Co-Chairman, and through his expertise, formulated and implemented Philippine Agenda 21;
• United Nation bodies such as the UNDP, FAO, UNCSD and UNICEF, where he was the authoritative representative for the Philippines and civil society;
• Critical government agencies throughout several presidencies, as expert consultant to the Senate, House of Representatives, NEDA, DSWD, DA, DENR and as the official Philippine delegate to the United Nations and APEC; and
• Principal negotiator during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (“APEC”) and pivotal to preventing radical and one-sided trade liberalization. Mr. Perlas successfully introduced strong sustainable development language in the Leaders and Ministerial Declarations of APEC, and constrained the Individual Action Plan of the Philippines to abide by sustainable development principles.

2.    Visionary leader who created, developed and broke new ground with several pioneering and momentous initiatives and organizations, including the:

• Centre for Alternative Development Initiatives (CADI), a trailblazer in the agricultural field, which set in motion, organic farming in an otherwise chemical-intensive agricultural system;
• Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, which effectively commenced and culminated a campaign against pesticide abuse, and providing expert training and technical assistance to 23 provinces in the Philippines;
• Large-scale commercial organic and biodynamic agriculture, the first of its kind in the country. In fact, Mr. Perlas is recognized as a most prominent force on ecological agriculture in Asia, notable for coining the term: “sustainable agriculture” in 1983;
• Creator of the 'tri-sector' approach to policy-making or “societal threefolding.”  His innovative work launched the Global Network for Social Three-Folding or Globenet3, with more than 17 geographic and functional nodes in over 12 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the United States of America; and
• Author of SIAD: Framework for the Localization of Philippine Agenda 21, a crucial blueprint, which is now being utilized by several local governments and civil society organizations to advance sustainable integrated area development.

Nick Perlas, with his unparalleled expertise and stellar work, is renowned in the field. He has:

a.     Been consistently invited to lecture and impart his visionary and pioneering work before civil society organizations and movements as plenary speaker or resource person. He has lectured in over 100 global conferences and over 150 national conferences;

b.     Written an international bestseller: “Shaping Globalization: Civil Society, Cultural Power and Threefolding”, which has been translated in nine (9) languages.  His book is being continuously utilized by governments, business and civil society for policy-making throughout the world; and

c.     Authored over 500 articles and among others, is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of TruthForce, and Ikabuhi Newspaper for Micro-Entrepreneurs.
Alternative Nobel

The Right Livelihood Award was established in 1980 to honour and support those "offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today". It has become widely known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize' and there are now 137 Laureates from 58 countries. Other awards of Nicanor Perlas: Global 500 Award TOFIL Masterson Award

CITATION Nicanor Perlas (Philippines) (2003) “…for his outstanding efforts in educating civil society about the effects of corporate globalisation, and how alternatives to it can be implemented.” Nicanor Perlas was born in 1950, and graduated with highest honours in agriculture from Xavier University. He gave up his master’s degree after being drawn into the struggle against the Marcos-promoted Baataan nuclear plant in 1978 and had to leave the Philippines after organising a conference to expose its dangers. After the fall of Marcos Perlas was able to return to the Philippines, founding the Centre for Alternative Development Initiatives (CADI). He became a consultant to the Aquino Government on the troubled nuclear power plant, and contributed to the decision to mothball it, despite it being very near completion, and having cost $2.1 billion. At the same time he engaged in a campaign against the abuse of pesticides, founding the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. This (and very often Perlas personally) gave training and technical assistance in 23 provinces in the Philippines. Perlas also became a member of the government’s Pesticides Technical Advisory Committee, which eventually banned 32 of the most damaging pesticides and caused the government to invest P760 million in integrated pest management, which trained more than 100,000 farmers. For this work Perlas won the Global 500 Award from UNEP, and one of the TOFIL Awards to outstanding Filipinos, both in 1994. In the substantial press coverage that accompanied these awards, Perlas was often referred to as ‘a farmer’ and his work with CADI still helps farmers to shift away from chemical-intensive agriculture. By this time Perlas was already one of the Philippines’ environmental leaders. He had set up student environmental groups and his work on nuclear power and sustainable agriculture had given him a national profile. He was one of the Philippines’ NGO delegation to the 1992 Earth Summit. He later became heavily involved in the post-Rio process in the Philippines, not least through the Philippine Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), of which he has been Civil Society Co- Chair, and helped to formulate and implement at the local level Philippine Agenda 21 (PA21). Later in the 1990s he became Co-Chair of the Green Forum of environmental groups, and he has been a member of Mikael Gorbachov’s Commission on Globalisation. Perlas explicitly sought to use PA21 as a counter-weight to the trade liberalisation that was being pushed through the Uruguay Road of the GATT, in what he described as a “creative response to the challenge of élite globalisation.” A major practical expression of the PA21 approach is the micro-credit initiative Lifebank, of which Perlas is a Board member. Lifebank has so far reached 15,000 families. Perlas has evolved a ‘tri-sector’ approach to policy-making, which he calls ‘threefolding’: “In social threefolding the three global powers - government, representing political concerns, business, representing economic concerns, and civil society, representing cultural concerns, can come together, where appropriate and feasible, to join efforts in solving major world problems.” This is the subject of Perlas’ most recent book, Shaping Globalisation: Cultural Power and Threefolding, (2000). These ideas are said to have been important in the process that led to the toppling of President Estrada in 2000. Perlas took the book to the State of the World Forum 2000, and has co-founded two networks to take the ideas forward globally: GlobeNet 3 and the Global Institute for Responsible Leadership, which seeks to promote innovative thinking and collaboration across traditional boundaries - departments, organizations, sectors, and cultures. For the past five years Perlas’s focus has almost exclusively been on social movements and their power to change the world. He counts as one of his major achievements that, with Walden Bello, he convinced the Philippine NGO scene in 1996, through major talks, the formation of networks and a big civil society conference that the issue for the future of the Philippines, is the value system underpinning globalisation. Perlas warns that the developments we are facing demand a deeper, ethical and spiritual response: we face a system not just a management crisis. Thus he asks how our sense of identity and humanity will be affected by current technological advances (in genetic engineering, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence) which could lead to the proliferation of half-human half- machine “silicone beings” in the near future. Quotation “We are in fact faced with very deep spiritual social problems, which require spiritual responses from us. Ordinary, secular, materialistic answers will not do. For behind every act of social resistance and creativity is a spiritual act. Spiritual revolution must have happened first within us before we can create the new world we all long for.”

(Reposted with permission from Mr. Nicanor Perlas)

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Source:

Complete Biography (of Nicanor Perlas). 10 April 2010. Official website of Nicanor Perlas. http://www.nicanor-perlas.com/About-Nicanor-Perlas/complete-biography.html

Beware and Overcome [YELLOW] Media Manipulation

by Nicanor Perlas


READERS beware! If you want to get the truth regarding the recent national elections, go beyond what you get from the mainstream media. Do your own research. Check the facts on the ground. Ask what your friends experienced. Connect the dots yourself. Come to your own conclusion. In this way, you will protect your mind from being manipulated by unseen powers that lurk behind the country’s media establishment.

Immediately after the May 10, 2010 elections, the Filipino public was brainwashed with stories about a stunningly successful election. “ ‘Birth pains’ of poll automation over”. “Fast count stuns nation”. “Stocks surge as markets cheer successful elections”. “ ‘Villar conceding proves Comelec credible’ “. “Take a bow, Filipino voters”. “US, EU praise RP for elections; peso, markets buoyed”. “Comelec proves critics wrong”. “Filipinos carry on love affair with PCOS machines”.

The “Good job” editorial of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) captures the euphoria over the rapid success of the elections. In its May 12, 2012 editorial, two days after the elections, PDI wrote the following:

“Contrary to the most dismal expectations, . . . the country’s first nationwide automated elections have turned out to be a success. . . . the May 10 vote marked a true rite of passage. Our electoral system has finally caught up with the 21st century. . . . . For now, and while taking into consideration the remaining uncertainties in the election, our civic duty is to commend the many people who helped turn the first computerized polls into a success.”

PDI then thanked the presidential candidates for conceding to apparent winner Benigno Aquino III. PDI had special words for Manny Villar. PDI called his “gracious” concession a “class act”.

Understandably, amidst this sudden euphoria, when I did not concede victory to Aquino due to evidence of massive fraud in the elections, the gatekeepers in media started framing my decision as “sour grapes” or “sour loser”. They also distorted the facts in my press release or media interviews. And, if I did come out in the media, they would often attach “losing” presidential candidate to my name, to implicitly emphasize that I was a “sour loser”. They did not want to bring out that I was questioning the outcome of the elections, not for myself, but because it was the product of a fraudulent process and thereby endangered our democracy. (See my press statement, “I am not conceding”) Oftentimes, they would simply censor my comments and give a one-sided account of subsequent events that followed.

However, no one can suppress the truth. No one can overcome the truth. And indeed the truth regarding massive fraud in the elections started to surface all over, despite media bias against incidents of fraud.

News surfaced about 60 PCOS machines stored illegally at the private house of one Smartmatic technician. Irregular transmission dates were found in one of these PCOS machines. Reports also came out about flash cards found in the garbage dump in Cagayan de Oro City, implying an attempt to remove evidence of fraud. Alert citizens and IT experts also discovered that all election returns (ERs) were transmitted without the required digital signatures, a clear violation of RA9369, the law that authorized the establishment of the automated election system. Canvassing of votes cannot take place because the ERs are not valid. Further research by various groups has also revealed that COMELEC has violated more than 50% of the provisions of RA9369. This meant that the recent national elections were fraudulent, thereby also making the election results illegal. Then recently, several whistle blowers surfaced claiming massive fraud in the recent 2010 elections.

With these developments, media headlines started to slowly change, albeit begrudgingly and reluctantly and even antagonistically. They started carrying stories of fraud. “Erap focuses on ‘hocus PCOS’, an ‘electronic Garci’ system”. “Watchdogs call for probe of ‘poll irregularities’”. “Three losing pres’l bets troop to SC”. And so on.

Until finally, on 18 May 2012, PDI writes an editorial: “Reviewing the polls”. PDI wrote:

“Now, some people are having second thoughts: the automated elections system may have its faults, after all. . . . . The most prominent of the critics is deposed President Joseph Estrada . . . Estrada is refusing to concede saying that he is gathering evidence showing discrepancies in the transmitted results and other alleged irregularities. Three other presidential candidates, Senator Maria Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal, Nicanor Perlas, and JC de los Reyes, have not conceded either saying that, while they may not win the presidency, they want to know the whole truth about the results of the presidential elections. . . . .

“That the new automated election system is being subjected to a thorough examination and critique by various sectors of society is a healthy sign for our democracy. It shows that voters are not content with just voting and receiving fast results; they want to be assured that the entire process is fair, accurate and credible. Elections are the instrument by which the will of the people is expressed. If the electoral system can be subverted, then we will not know how the people really decided.”

The PDI editorial marked the passage of the country from misinformed and naïve euphoria of a “stunning” “successful” election, to the messy reality that massive fraud may have been perpetuated in the recent national elections.

No matter what happens to the fate of the whistleblowers who have recently surfaced and the increasing number of impossible results being uncovered, one thing is clear. Mainstream media is not neutral. They have their preferences and interests to protect. They wield massive cultural power to convince millions that their interests and preferences are the truth, are the reality.

Do not yield to their mind games, to their mind manipulation. Stand firm. Make your own independent decisions. The emergence of truth about the national elections will depend on our collective deprogramming from the frontal mental attacks of media. And this truth will determine the future of our country.


(Reposted with permission from Mr. Nicanor Perlas)

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Source: 

Perlas, Nicanor. Beware and Overcome Media Manipulation. 21 May 2010. http://www.nicanor-perlas.com/News/beware-and-overcome-media-manipulation.html

Evidence of Electronic 'Hello Garci' Mounting

JC de los Reyes, Jamby Madrigal, Nicanor Perlas Joint Press Statement
Thursday, 13 May 2010
Since the 11th of May the media have been asking us why we have not yet conceded and why one of us retracted an earlier concession. The question is not whether we should concede to any particular candidate but whether to concede or not to the validity and integrity of an unproven and flawed automated election system.

In the recent euphoria surrounding the perceived success of these automated elections we may sound like voices crying out in the wilderness, but ours is a voice of caution and reason, a stand based on principle rather than on personal politics and agenda.

We have decided to put the Filipino peoples’ interests at the forefront.  We have put our political agenda aside.   There has been a constant and steady flow of reports from the field that have suggested that there were considerable  problems with the automated elections.

At this point, there are some questions that I believe need to be answered:

• How did the Comelec manage to recall, replace, debug and reprogram the 76,000 CF cards in a few days
• What happened to the supposedly recalled CF cards? Where are they?
• How sure are we that the same CF cards were not pre-programmed to favor particular candidates?
• Is the automated election system really fool-proof ?  With the disabling of the UV lamps how sure are we that unused ballots were not filled up and counted in favour of certain candidates?

With this in mind we cannot in principle and with a clear conscience concede to a system which is unproven, not transparent and which has been riddled with technical and security flaws.
This is a national dilemma. This is why the COMELEC needs to prove to the Filipino people the transparency, accuracy and credibility of the system before we can make the correct moral and ethical choice.

We are making this stand so that the Filipino people will not be rushed into thinking that the automated election system is a success when millions have been disenfranchised and millions of votes may have been incorrectly counted.

This stand is not about winning or losing but about doing the right thing for the Filipino people at the risk of going against current popular public opinion.

We must make sure that the current elections were clean, fair and accurate. We cannot allow the recent automated elections to become an ‘’invisible electronic Garci.’’  That would undermine our democracy.

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Source:

JC de los Reyes, Jamby Madrigal, Nicanor Perlas. Evidence of Electronic Garci Mountin. 13 May 2010. http://www.nicanor-perlas.com/News/evidence-of-electronic-garci-mounting.html