MUCH THANKS TO ALL FOR THIS RAPLER AWARD

First, much thanks to Rappler for this 2015 Enterprise Mover Award which we regard as recognition of the work of our NGO, the Bohol Local Development Foundation in our efforts through the years to link households and communities that they may have better access to useful information and services from the Government and its development partners.

In a sense, it is also a recognition of our lifetime work with the country’s pioneers of community development and the fieldworkers and volunteers from younger generations who have aspired to replace them in the often difficult but ultimately rewarding task of helping the most disadvantaged of our people be part of mainstream development.

It is reaffirmation of our belief that in the final analysis, all development is local.

We believe that all global development agendas, the Millennium Development Goals and their successor, the Sustainable Development Goals, and all policies and programs promoted by international aid agencies are mere rhetoric if they are not translated into specific and concrete messages, tools and approaches, and more importantly, services that will help liberate the poor from the constraints brought about by deprivation and underdevelopment.

This award is a recognition that Rappler and those who support its meritorious advocacies for change share with our NGO the firm belief that those who have been disenfranchised by geographic isolation, as well as economic, cultural and religious biases, and by institutionalized corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency, must be reached and engaged to participate meaningfully in a program of planned change.

On the matter of enterprise development among our people, we ourselves are not entrepreneurs, but development workers who believe that the marginalized among our people have skills and other assets which have made them survived all these years and that we can help them take advantage of opportunities for further growth and development.

We would like to believe this is the same task for which generations of development workers, extension workers, community organizers and mobilizers have dedicated their lives to since the initiation of professional community development in this country in the 1950s.

Through four decades of development work, mostly in the province of Bohol, we have seen the evolution of development fieldworkers assuming various roles: as links between service agencies and the villages; as trainers to community groups and their leaders; and, on the whole, as bearers of good hope to specific households and groups of people who have to be reached still by the benefits of committed democratic governance and global development.

As Rappler continues to advocate and demonstrate, tools developed during this digital age, which has given rise to the prominent role of social media in practically all aspects of our lives, we need to mobilize technology-savvy young people in their thousands to use their newly-acquired knowledge and tools in the service of the people in their respective localities. We must use these gadgets to reach communities, groups and individual households which may still be isolated and bounreached.

We share with Rappler and its supporters the vision to bring millions of our people to the mainstream of development, as both beneficiaries and participants in the pursuit of global and national development goals, which must be articulated either formally and informally in local community plans and family aspirations.

Much thanks to the votes cast in my favor during the public polling, the endorsements and votes from friends, relatives and colleagues from various networks; the campaigns waged by several close friends, associates and groups.

We thank the following close friends who worked day and night with their families to mobilize votes in my favor: Milwida Sevilla-Reyes, Quezon High Class 1958, based in Sydney; Isa Losloso-Rivera, based in Chicago, and Nini De Asis, both from the same Class 58; Dr. Mimosa Cortes, retired UPLB faculty and Sigma Delta head; Keats Yapchiongco, former Illustrious Fellow, Upsilon Sigma Phi; Corazon Lanuza, Dick Asi, and their Class 68 classmates; Gen. Charlemagne Alejandrino, MSEUF Vice Pres. Benilda Villenas, Jane Asensi Malaluan, and many others from QPHS Class 70; Norma Tulio, Cecilio Adorna, Richard Prado of UNICEF and Alcanz Consulting; Lillian Pestelos Cancino, Rhodora Pestelos Renacido; Mohamed Hilmy, Tarcissius Tara, Rex Horoi from the Maldives and the Pacific; Mabel Cuison and other friends from Habitat for Humanity; Gardy Labad and his Kasing-Sining group.

I thank Jason Tulio who nominated me whom I had not met before.

And many, many more I have to thank. I will find time to review my notes and thank everyone who has helped in this campaign. Pasensya na muna kung may nakalimutan. Mahina ang kalaban! We will go back to this list later.

We thank the Upsilon Sigma Phi and Sigma Delta Phi and those from other fraternities and sororities from UP Los Banos and other campuses; youth groups, women's groups, and senior citizens' associations in our project sites; high school and college classmates; DevCom group Grockers, Bohol Planning and Development Office (PPDO), and the Municipal Planning and Development Coordinators of Bohol; project partners in the LGUs and national agencies in the province; friends and project partners from UNDP, UNICEF, AusAID, USAID, CIDA, ADB in the various countries where I was assigned; close friends from Christian, Muslim and Buddhist communities in which I did project work during the last forty years … to all of you, this Award I accept on your behalf for your being with us in this development journey with our people.

Each step of this journey I dedicate to the 33 friends I lost in that struggle for freedom of the 1970s. They might be victims of misleadership and a flawed ideology, but I respect their tenacity and sacrifices in reaching the poor “wherever they are to be found.”

Indeed, let’s move on. ‪#‎Pestelosrappleraward