Nicanor Perlas
Encyclopedia
Nicanor Jesus "Nicky"/"Nick" Pineda Perlas, III (born January 10, 1950 in Manila, Philippines) is a Filipino
activist and a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award
(also known as the "Alternative Nobel Prize") in 2003. He was a Philippine presidential aspirant for the 2010 presidential elections but lost to Liberal Party's President Benigno C. Aquino III.
in 1964 and finished his secondary education in the same school in 1968. While spending his high school years at the Ateneo, he was the Athlete of the Year and the recipient of the Silver Medal of the school's Math and Science Club in 1968.
Perlas pursued his undergraduate studies at the College of Agriculture in Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan. With the highest honors, he graduated Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, major in Agronomy and minor in Agricultural Economics in the said educational institution in 1972. He would then seek to pursue his masteral studies at the University of the Philippines
in Los Baños
, Laguna, but would soon be forced to abandon his studies after being involved in the opposition of the Bataan nuclear power plant under the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos
.
, a $2.2 billion project plagued with design, construction, location, and corruption problems.
Shortly thereafter, Perlas was appointed member of the national technical panel overseeing the regulation of pesticide
use in Philippine agriculture
. While in this capacity, he simultaneously mobilized and headed a national effort that resulted in the banning of 32 hazardous pesticide formulations in the Philippines. The ban triggered the creation of a P
750 million government program to reduce the use of pesticides in Philippine agriculture.
In parallel with these efforts, Perlas pioneered the introduction of large scale commercial organic and biodynamic agriculture
in many provinces in the Philippines. All these efforts were the fruition of early advocacies in sustainable agriculture when he was still an agricultural journalist and columnist at the Modern Agriculture and Industry-Asia, where he pioneered the first monthly articles on ecological agriculture in the Asian context. Together with colleagues at the International Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture or IASA, he coined the term sustainable agriculture
in 1983, a term which has received wide use and currency until today.
Perlas was the chief negotiator for a network of national networks, which involved 5000 organizations, that successfully stopped the agenda of radical and one sided liberalization in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation or APEC. He successfully introduced strong sustainable development language in the Leaders and Ministerial Declarations in APEC, and constrained the Individual Action Plan of the Philippines to abide by sustainable development principles. The successful negotiations prevented the premature exposure and economic decline of 3 million Philippine rice
farmers to subsidized and artificially cheap rice coming from other countries.
He is also the co-founder and spokesperson of Karangalan which hosted a series of national conferences highlighting important global and national innovations and achievements by Filipinos in many disciplines and fields. Karangalan aims to stimulate the creation of a visionary Philippines. The 1st National Conference and Festival on “Mobilizing Excellence for Creating a Visionary Philippines” was January 21–23, 2005 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, in partnership with over 40 organizations and networks.
Perlas was the chief facilitator and co-founder of the ABS-CBN "Forum on the Filipino Future", held on December 16, 2004. He was Chairman, Adviser on Strategy and Integral Sustainable Development, and Member, Board of Directors, Lifebank, and Board of Trustees of Lifebank Foundation, both of which help close to 240,000 economically poor families through microfinance.
He has been chairman of several national civil society networks including the Green Forum Philippines, the Philippine Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, and the Civil Society Counterpart Council for Sustainable Development.
Co-founder and spokesperson for Tindog Pilipinas! A national movement for a better Philippines, Professionals for Social Responsibility, and the Philippine Advancement and Renewal through Threefolding Networking, Research & Service, or PARTNERS, which is the Philippine node for GlobeNet3.
or PA21, which is a creative response to the challenges of elite globalization
. He was one of the official civil society
delegates from the Philippines at the Earth Summit
in Rio. It was out of this experience, among others, that he helped shape the process and substance of PA21. Having emerged from more than 26 regional and national consultations, PA21 was characterized by the former Philippine president as the most consultative policy document in post-martial law
Philippines. PA21 is still officially the blueprint for sustainable development
in the Philippines, although presently marginalized by the current controversial government of the Philippines.
He was also the technical writer of SIAD: Framework for the Localization of Philippine Agenda 21, which is now used by a number of local governments and civil society organizations to advance sustainable integrated area development in towns.
, science and spirituality, social threefolding, strategic microfinance
, direct democracy and others.
He has provided consultancy work for several UN agencies, the Philippine Senate, donor agencies and foundations, as well as many other global and national civil society organizations and networks and businesses striving for ecological and social responsibility.
As a technical writer and key formulator of Philippine Agenda 21, as well as co-chair for the Civil Society of the Philippine Council for Sustainable Development, Office of the President of the Philippines, Perlas was invited to attend several UN meetings including the UN General Assembly on Sustainable Development, UNGASS and the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, 6th Session, as Technical Adviser to the Philippine Delegation to the UN.
Member, Mikhail Gorbachev
’s Commission on Globalization
Creative Member, Club of Budapest, Recognized as “highly creative innovators for a social and ecological sustainable world and a culture of peace”.
Agenda 21 is a program of action into the 21st century for bringing the Earth into a sustainable future. It was adopted by the participating governments of the world in the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), otherwise known as the Earth Summit, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 1992.
Nicanor Perlas is part of the faculty at the graduate program of the Southeast Asian Interdisciplinary Development Institute (SAIDI). Perlas was a professor at the accredited Doctoral program on Applied Cosmic Anthropology of the Asian Social Institute
, where he gave in depth theoretical and practical elaborations of the Lemniscate Process. He is also a board member and a resource person for training programs of the Gamot Cogon Institute or GCI, based in Iloilo, Philippines.
, Social threefolding
, conscious evolution, civil society
, multiple intelligence, creativity, cultural power, philosophy of science and biology, technological singularity
, sustainable agriculture
, appreciative inquiry
, Neurophysiology
and consciousness
, anthroposophy
, good governance, new politics
, associative economics, and the integration of inner change and large-scale societal transformation.
He is the publisher and editor-in-chief for TruthForce! A national and global internet-based news and analysis service which reaches thousands of subscribers and readers in over 60 countries.
Formerly, he was Editor-In-Chief, Ikabuhi Newspaper for Micro-Entrepreneurs (34,000 + circulation)
His book, Shaping Globalization: Civil Society, Cultural Power, and Threefolding, has been translated in 9 languages. It is being used in dozens of universities in the Philippines and various parts of the world.
He also received highest honors upon his graduation from Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, major in Agronomy
and minor in Agricultural Economics
. He was the valedictorian of his graduating class in the College of Agriculture. In Graduate School at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, he was on the dean’s list.
A month until the Philippines would begin the first automated local and national elections, Perlas petitioned but failed to get the nod of the Commission on Elections to postpone the polls for 90 days, citing irregularities of Comelec to assure that all is set for the election to take place.
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
activist and a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award
Right Livelihood Award
The Right Livelihood Award, also referred to as the "Alternative Nobel Prize", is a prestigious international award to honour those "working on practical and exemplary solutions to the most urgent challenges facing the world today". The prize was established in 1980 by Jakob von Uexkull, and is...
(also known as the "Alternative Nobel Prize") in 2003. He was a Philippine presidential aspirant for the 2010 presidential elections but lost to Liberal Party's President Benigno C. Aquino III.
Early life and education
Perlas was the son of Jesus C. Perlas, Sr. and Anunciacion M. Pineda. He finished his elementary education at the Ateneo de Manila UniversityAteneo de Manila University
The Ateneo de Manila University is a private teaching and research university run by the Society of Jesus in the Philippines. It began in 1859 when the City of Manila handed control of the Escuela Municipal de Manila in Intramuros, Manila, to the Jesuits...
in 1964 and finished his secondary education in the same school in 1968. While spending his high school years at the Ateneo, he was the Athlete of the Year and the recipient of the Silver Medal of the school's Math and Science Club in 1968.
Perlas pursued his undergraduate studies at the College of Agriculture in Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan. With the highest honors, he graduated Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, major in Agronomy and minor in Agricultural Economics in the said educational institution in 1972. He would then seek to pursue his masteral studies at the University of the Philippines
University of the Philippines
The ' is the national university of the Philippines. Founded in 1908 through Act No...
in Los Baños
Los Banos
Los Banos could refer to:*Los Banos, California, United States*Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines...
, Laguna, but would soon be forced to abandon his studies after being involved in the opposition of the Bataan nuclear power plant under the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, Sr. was a Filipino leader and an authoritarian President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He was a lawyer, member of the Philippine House of Representatives and a member of the Philippine Senate...
.
Personal life
He was married to American citizen Kathryn Carpenter. Now divorced. Together they have had one son, Christopher Michael Perlas.Activism
In his university days, Perlas was one of the key organizers of a university-wide education reform movement that resulted in changes in university policies. During this time, he founded the first ecological society in the Philippines. After graduation, he co-organized a successful large scale global campaign, the first of its kind during his time, to halt 12 nuclear plants in the Philippines. Perlas subsequently become a technical adviser to the Presidential Commission on the Philippine Nuclear Power Plant, Office of the President of the Philippines, where he was instrumental in stopping the operation of the fully constructed and operational Bataan Nuclear Power PlantBataan Nuclear Power Plant
Bataan Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant, completed but never fueled, on Bataan Peninsula, west of Manila in the Philippines. It is located on a 3.57 square kilometre government reservation at Napot Point in Morong, Bataan...
, a $2.2 billion project plagued with design, construction, location, and corruption problems.
Shortly thereafter, Perlas was appointed member of the national technical panel overseeing the regulation of pesticide
Pesticide
Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.A pesticide may be a chemical unicycle, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest...
use in Philippine agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
. While in this capacity, he simultaneously mobilized and headed a national effort that resulted in the banning of 32 hazardous pesticide formulations in the Philippines. The ban triggered the creation of a P
Philippine peso
The peso is the currency of the Philippines. It is subdivided into 100 centavos . Before 1967, the language used on the banknotes and coins was English and so "peso" was the name used...
750 million government program to reduce the use of pesticides in Philippine agriculture.
In parallel with these efforts, Perlas pioneered the introduction of large scale commercial organic and biodynamic agriculture
Biodynamic agriculture
Biodynamic agriculture is a method of organic farming that emphasizes the holistic development and interrelationships of the soil, plants and animals as a self-sustaining system. Biodynamic farming has much in common with other organic approaches, such as emphasizing the use of manures and composts...
in many provinces in the Philippines. All these efforts were the fruition of early advocacies in sustainable agriculture when he was still an agricultural journalist and columnist at the Modern Agriculture and Industry-Asia, where he pioneered the first monthly articles on ecological agriculture in the Asian context. Together with colleagues at the International Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture or IASA, he coined the term sustainable agriculture
Sustainable agriculture
Sustainable agriculture is the practice of farming using principles of ecology, the study of relationships between organisms and their environment...
in 1983, a term which has received wide use and currency until today.
Perlas was the chief negotiator for a network of national networks, which involved 5000 organizations, that successfully stopped the agenda of radical and one sided liberalization in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation or APEC. He successfully introduced strong sustainable development language in the Leaders and Ministerial Declarations in APEC, and constrained the Individual Action Plan of the Philippines to abide by sustainable development principles. The successful negotiations prevented the premature exposure and economic decline of 3 million Philippine rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
farmers to subsidized and artificially cheap rice coming from other countries.
Projects and offices
Perlas is the co-founder, president and executive director of the Center for Alternative Development Initiatives or CADI, in Metro Manila and Iloilo City, where he guides research and policy work and develops initiatives on globalization, threefolding and their impacts on civil society, cultural power and sustainable development.He is also the co-founder and spokesperson of Karangalan which hosted a series of national conferences highlighting important global and national innovations and achievements by Filipinos in many disciplines and fields. Karangalan aims to stimulate the creation of a visionary Philippines. The 1st National Conference and Festival on “Mobilizing Excellence for Creating a Visionary Philippines” was January 21–23, 2005 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, in partnership with over 40 organizations and networks.
Perlas was the chief facilitator and co-founder of the ABS-CBN "Forum on the Filipino Future", held on December 16, 2004. He was Chairman, Adviser on Strategy and Integral Sustainable Development, and Member, Board of Directors, Lifebank, and Board of Trustees of Lifebank Foundation, both of which help close to 240,000 economically poor families through microfinance.
He has been chairman of several national civil society networks including the Green Forum Philippines, the Philippine Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, and the Civil Society Counterpart Council for Sustainable Development.
Social Three-Folding
Co-founder the Global Network for Social Three-Folding, Globenet3 or GN3, with more than 17 geographic and functional nodes in over 12 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the United States of America. GN3 advances profound societal transformation towards integral sustainable development on the basis of socially-engaged spirituality and deep substantive inner change.Co-founder and spokesperson for Tindog Pilipinas! A national movement for a better Philippines, Professionals for Social Responsibility, and the Philippine Advancement and Renewal through Threefolding Networking, Research & Service, or PARTNERS, which is the Philippine node for GlobeNet3.
Philippine Agenda 21
In the mid-1990s he was one of two technical writers of Philippine Agenda 21Agenda 21
Agenda 21 is an action plan of the United Nations related to sustainable development and was an outcome of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992...
or PA21, which is a creative response to the challenges of elite globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
. He was one of the official civil society
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
delegates from the Philippines at the Earth Summit
Earth Summit
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development , also known as the Rio Summit, Rio Conference, Earth Summit was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 June to 14 June 1992.-Overview:...
in Rio. It was out of this experience, among others, that he helped shape the process and substance of PA21. Having emerged from more than 26 regional and national consultations, PA21 was characterized by the former Philippine president as the most consultative policy document in post-martial law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
Philippines. PA21 is still officially the blueprint for sustainable development
Sustainable development
Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...
in the Philippines, although presently marginalized by the current controversial government of the Philippines.
He was also the technical writer of SIAD: Framework for the Localization of Philippine Agenda 21, which is now used by a number of local governments and civil society organizations to advance sustainable integrated area development in towns.
Speaking and Consultancy
Perlas has been the resource person and keynote speaker in over 70 global conferences and events in over 20 countries, and over 120 national conferences on a range of topics including culture and societal transformation, integral sustainable development, globalization, technology, corporate social responsibilitySocial responsibility
Social responsibility is an ethical ideology or theory that an entity, be it an organization or individual, has an obligation to act to benefit society at large. Social responsibility is a duty every individual or organization has to perform so as to maintain a balance between the economy and the...
, science and spirituality, social threefolding, strategic microfinance
Microfinance
Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients or solidarity lending groups including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services....
, direct democracy and others.
He has provided consultancy work for several UN agencies, the Philippine Senate, donor agencies and foundations, as well as many other global and national civil society organizations and networks and businesses striving for ecological and social responsibility.
As a technical writer and key formulator of Philippine Agenda 21, as well as co-chair for the Civil Society of the Philippine Council for Sustainable Development, Office of the President of the Philippines, Perlas was invited to attend several UN meetings including the UN General Assembly on Sustainable Development, UNGASS and the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, 6th Session, as Technical Adviser to the Philippine Delegation to the UN.
Member, Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
’s Commission on Globalization
Creative Member, Club of Budapest, Recognized as “highly creative innovators for a social and ecological sustainable world and a culture of peace”.
Agenda 21 is a program of action into the 21st century for bringing the Earth into a sustainable future. It was adopted by the participating governments of the world in the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), otherwise known as the Earth Summit, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 1992.
Trainings
Perlas has conducted hundreds of training sessions in the Philippines and abroad on a wide range of topics convergent with his writings. In this context he has innovated and developed a new framework for advancing integral sustainable development through the harmonious weaving together of profound inner change and radical but peaceful societal transformation. He calls this new framework the Lemniscate Process, which integrates the substance of more than two dozen disciplines and fields, all geared towards unlocking human creativity, enthusiasm and commitment for creating a better world.Nicanor Perlas is part of the faculty at the graduate program of the Southeast Asian Interdisciplinary Development Institute (SAIDI). Perlas was a professor at the accredited Doctoral program on Applied Cosmic Anthropology of the Asian Social Institute
Asian Social Institute
The Asian Social Institute is a graduate school in Manila, Philippines. It is one of the few graduate institutes specializing in economics, sociology, social work and social services and development in the country....
, where he gave in depth theoretical and practical elaborations of the Lemniscate Process. He is also a board member and a resource person for training programs of the Gamot Cogon Institute or GCI, based in Iloilo, Philippines.
Writings
Perlas has written over 500 articles, editorials, monographs and books on a range of topics including globalizationGlobalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
, Social threefolding
Social Threefolding
Social threefolding is a sociological theory that suggests increasing the independence of society's three primary realms in such a way that those three realms can mutually correct each other in an ongoing process. The movement aims for equality of rights in political life, freedom in cultural...
, conscious evolution, civil society
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
, multiple intelligence, creativity, cultural power, philosophy of science and biology, technological singularity
Technological singularity
Technological singularity refers to the hypothetical future emergence of greater-than-human intelligence through technological means. Since the capabilities of such an intelligence would be difficult for an unaided human mind to comprehend, the occurrence of a technological singularity is seen as...
, sustainable agriculture
Sustainable agriculture
Sustainable agriculture is the practice of farming using principles of ecology, the study of relationships between organisms and their environment...
, appreciative inquiry
Appreciative inquiry
Appreciative Inquiry is primarily an organisational development method which seeks to engage all levels of an organisation to renew, change and improved performance. Its exponents view it as being applicable to organisations facing rapid change or growth...
, Neurophysiology
Neurophysiology
Neurophysiology is a part of physiology. Neurophysiology is the study of nervous system function...
and consciousness
Consciousness
Consciousness is a term that refers to the relationship between the mind and the world with which it interacts. It has been defined as: subjectivity, awareness, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind...
, anthroposophy
Anthroposophy
Anthroposophy, a philosophy founded by Rudolf Steiner, postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world accessible to direct experience through inner development...
, good governance, new politics
New Politics
New Politics was a term used in the United States in the 1950s to denote the ascending ideology of that country's Democratic Party during that decade...
, associative economics, and the integration of inner change and large-scale societal transformation.
He is the publisher and editor-in-chief for TruthForce! A national and global internet-based news and analysis service which reaches thousands of subscribers and readers in over 60 countries.
Formerly, he was Editor-In-Chief, Ikabuhi Newspaper for Micro-Entrepreneurs (34,000 + circulation)
His book, Shaping Globalization: Civil Society, Cultural Power, and Threefolding, has been translated in 9 languages. It is being used in dozens of universities in the Philippines and various parts of the world.
Other awards
His other awards include the William F. Masterson award, the top award for outstanding alumni of Xavier University for his national and global contributions to sustainable agriculture.He also received highest honors upon his graduation from Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, major in Agronomy
Agronomy
Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants for food, fuel, feed, fiber, and reclamation. Agronomy encompasses work in the areas of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and soil science. Agronomy is the application of a combination of sciences like biology,...
and minor in Agricultural Economics
Agricultural economics
Agricultural economics originally applied the principles of economics to the production of crops and livestock — a discipline known as agronomics. Agronomics was a branch of economics that specifically dealt with land usage. It focused on maximizing the crop yield while maintaining a good soil...
. He was the valedictorian of his graduating class in the College of Agriculture. In Graduate School at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, he was on the dean’s list.
Presidential Candidate in 2010
On June 17, 2009, Nicanor Perlas announced his intentions to become one of the candidates for the Philippine Presidential Elections in May 2010. He announced this during a press conference at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani in Quezon City.A month until the Philippines would begin the first automated local and national elections, Perlas petitioned but failed to get the nod of the Commission on Elections to postpone the polls for 90 days, citing irregularities of Comelec to assure that all is set for the election to take place.
External links
- Official Website of Nicanor Perlas
- KaPERLAS Tayong Lahat: website for all supporters of Nick Perlas
- Nick Perlas on Twitter
- Nicanor Perlas for President Facebook Group Cause
- Nicanor Perlas for President Facebook Page
- Nick Perlas Profile on Facebook
- Center for Development Alternatives website
- Right Livelihood Award recipient
- Global 500 forum prize
- GlobeNet3 website
- Truthforce! website
- The 2010 Elections and Nicanor Perlas: A Spring of Hope