Nobel Laureates Award, Social Threefolding and the Philippine Spirit

By Nicanor Perlas
March 2001

On February 25, 2001, the Philippines received a very unusual global award. It is the first of its kind in the world. The Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Foundation (Nobel Peace Foundation) awarded the Philippines for their ‘wonderful gift of the spirit . . . to the world’ in the form of People Power II.  The prestigious Center for Global Non-Violence also joined the Nobel Peace Foundation in giving the award as the Philippines celebrated People Power I at the Edsa Shrine.

 This is no ordinary award. In a certain sense, it is higher than a Nobel Peace Prize since the citation was given by a foundation whose trustees are composed of former Nobel Peace Prize winners. The award therefore represents the combined judgment of global peace luminaries like Nelson Mandela of South Africa, the Dalai Lama of Tibet, Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta of East Timor and Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union.

 Leadership of the Third Kind

The award shows that the world is hungering for a third kind of leadership. It is weary of the two-kinds of leadership that have dominated the world: economic and political/military leadership. This third kind of leadership is cultural leadership. It is the demonstration of excellence in the area of culture, whether this be moral, normative, intellectual, ideals, or others. The Philippines demonstrated in action the cultural ideal of non-violent, peaceful removal of a corrupt and unaccountable president. Cultural leadership is a kind of leadership that medium-sized or even smaller countries can provide.

Pierre Marchand, chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize Foundation put it this way. "The world is sick and tired of war and violence. . . . You have given a gift to a world that knows only force and violence—of effecting radical change without firing a shot”. The world continues in its violent ways when only economic and political considerations dominate policy decisions.

People Power II and the Philippine Spirit

In this award, the excellence of the Philippine Spirit has revealed itself. The Nobel Peace Foundation and its partners correctly observed: “Your People Power II is even more amazing as it was almost a spontaneous combustion of a nation’s wrath when it felt that truth and justice were being suppressed. . . . History rarely allows a people to recreate an already singular phenomenon, but again you God-fearing and fellow Asians have shown the world that the governed must be eternally vigilant in holding elected leaders accountable.”

The Nobel Peace Foundation then further encouraged the Philippines not to stay within  “the shells of your existence. You cannot lie content upon your laurels that you have so richly won. . . . You were given a national gift. Do not keep it to yourselves. . . . The world will never be the same again . . . if the spirit of Edsa prevails beyond the shores of this tiny archipelago.”

Social Threefolding: A Related Philippine Contribution to the World

The Philippines is also becoming known globally as one of the pioneers and innovators of a new approach to solving, in a peaceful manner, conflict arising from development aggression. Economic and political doctrines, fostering one-sided competition and self-interest, spawn development aggression, leading to social conflict, and eventually to violence.

This Philippine innovation is known as social threefolding. It is starting to enter the highest levels of national and local government policy. Its beginnings have been introduced as practice in the United Nations. This UN experience has then become one of the bases for a new policy of tri-sectoral approaches adopted by over 150 heads of state and governments at the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000. And it is intimately connected with the inner dynamics of People Power II.

In essence, social threefolding recognizes that we now live in a tri-polar world inhabited by three global powers—civil society in culture, government in politics, and large corporations in the economy. We characterize it as a tri-polar world because these three global powers are often in conflict. However, social threefolding recognizes that all societies, of necessity, have a cultural, political, and economic realm. Further, it recognizes that at some point, these have to be harmonized. In the Philippine context, social threefolding offers concrete ways by which this tension can be creatively harnessed, where appropriate, to create a new Philippines.

Creative Fidelity to the Philippine Spirit

The Philippines can never be a world economic or political power in the sense of a United States or a Japan or any of the other large industrialized nations. However, it has shown that it is possible for a medium-sized nation to be a source of cultural excellence that can provide inspiration for other countries. Its example of moral strength can enrich the global discourse by showing that critical aspects of world civilization will never be solved on the basis of economic and political/military calculations alone.

If the Philippines is to be true to its destiny, if it is to be true to its Spirit, then it must embark on a path of societal development strongly guided by its vital moral sense for freedom of the spirit, fair play, justice, compassion, and community, among others.  Anything less will be a betrayal of the Philippine Spirit.