The Philippine Online Chronicles

Last December 22, I was lucky enough to meet Nick Perlas.  Mr. Perlas filed his candidacy for president of the Philippines.  He was disqualified by the Commission on Election because they judged that Nick Perlas doesn't have capacity to wage a national campaign.

Nick Perlas is very much determined to fight for his rights and to lead the protest to reinstate him as presidential candidate.

As of this writing, there are more than 1,800 individuals who have responded to the call to support Nick Perlas.  These people are individuals from the Philippines and all over the world.  They are mostly people who have known Nick Perlas from his seminars, keynotes & workshops that he had given in several countries.

When we met Mr. Perlas, the bulk of our discussion was about his protest & several opinions shared about the difference between traditional & new politics.  Personally, I went into that meeting with the intent to get to know more about Nick Perlas & what his credentials are.

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Who is Nick Perlas?

Nick Perlas is not a celebrity nor is he a politician.  He isn't even as rich as the other candidates nor a businessman.  He is an ordinary citizen like us.  Before running for office, Nick Perlas was a global consultant of integral, sustainable development.   And before that, Nick Perlas has been adviser to past presidents & politicians.  Among other things, he has done a lot to prove that he is fit to be our next president.

Here are some of Nicanor Perlas' achievements & credentials:

• Convinced, then President Fidel V. Ramos and 18 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Heads of State to advance sustainable development as a more appropriate paradigm in APEC.
• Key in keeping the Philippines nuclear free by preventing the implementation of building 12 nuclear power plants.
• Crafted with Ramos government, Philippine Agenda 21, which UN cited as an innovate approach to sustainable development.
• Spearheaded the national movement that led to the banning of 32 pesticide formulations that were poisoning millions of farmers and prevented Department of Agriculture and Pesticide Industry collusion.
• Helped create a national integrated pest management program that served over 100,000 farmers.
• As member of Kongreso ng Mamamayan Pilipino (KOMPIL) 2, helped mobilized the removal of Estrada from office.
• Helped to uncover the massive bribery and fraud surrounding the purchase and construction of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) and determined massive safety problems of BNPP which forced the Aquino Government to mothball the plant.

Nick Perlas was also one of the first presidential candidates to have a platform.  Take note, he was the one who wrote his own platform which is admirable.  This should be the case for all electoral candidates.  I wonder why some candidates need to have a team to write their own platform whereas the candidates themselves should know what they are planning to do for the country.

Nicanor Perlas's platform has 6 pillars which are as follows:

• Aims to Eradicate Poverty and Enhance Quality of Life for all, through- a vibrant broad-based economy, social justice and peace.
• Advance Moral and Effective Governance in all institutions of society and all situations in life to address corruption;
• Uphold the Integrity of Creation - stop massive destruction of our ecology and our environment.
• Build Partnerships for Social Justice - real participatory governance and authentic democracy.
• Promote Creative Education and Inner Change to also address the factor of inner change—taking responsibility for changing our hearts and minds.
• Aims to Mainstream Visionary Initiatives - to systematically discover, magnify and multiply these existing success stories.

Nick Perlas is fighting for new politics (Nick Perlas on New Politics).  The platform of Nick Perlas recognizes that everything is interconnected thus the approach will be systemic.  While we were all impressed with Nick Perlas' achievements (he's also into brain science & astrophysics!!), I was  curious with regards to his spending on the elections.  So, I asked, "how would you get the money to campaign?"

"You don't need a lot of money to campaign" Mr. Perlas said. "I think the hundreds of millions of pesos needed to campaign is bloated.  If you get the message across on the Internet and on the media, people get inspired and they will volunteer."

Then I asked, how much of it was from donations.  Nick Perlas said that as of the time we sat down with him, it was twenty percent.  He also added that on top of that, he has two million pesos from his own personal funds.  He said that that is his limit.  He won't spend more than two million from his own money.  Nick Perlas argued that to spend more than that would be to defeat the purpose of his New Politics.  He said that if people are not attracted to him to the extent that they wouldn't volunteer their time or to donate, then he will stop.

I'm sharing with you the video, when I asked him about his campaign funds & his credentials:

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New Politics is promising.  I think it is the change we have been waiting for far too long.  And New Politics is NOT Noynoy Aquino.  (Nick Perlas has an article written for this one - you can read it here).

Nick Perlas said that above all else, a presidential candidate he thinks has a moral responsibility to the Filipino People, to the voters to lay down concretely their plan.  A presidential candidate needs to have a track record for delivering that vision and he shouldn't be surrounded by people with different priorities.

I believe that Comelec was wrong in disqualifying Perlas just because they think Nick Perlas doesn't have enough funds for his campaign.  If that's the case, then I will have to agree with Perlas when he said that Comelec wants only rich people to be in politics.  Nick Perlas is an ordinary person who is sacrificing for something he believes is right.  I think he was honest and sincere and correct when Nick Perlas said that he isn't worried that he has no income and all his money is going out because he believes people today are awake and want something new.

Photo and video by author. Some Rights Reserved.