3

Basic respect and appreciation of and love for the natural environment

Deeper Eco-Spirituality

Comprehension and respect for biodiversity in stability of symbiosis

Comprehension and respect for ecosystems as fragile habitats

  1. Total Human Development and Harmony Through Synergism

  2. Holistic Health Care and Medicine

  3. Deep Ecology and Harmony with Nature 

  4. Sense of History and Sense of Mission

  5. Civics and Democratic Governance

  6. Culture as Community Creativity

  7. Light-Seeking and Light-Sharing Education

  8. Gender Sensitivity, Equality & Harmony

  9. Reconstructive/Restor-ative Justice

10. Associative Economics, Social Capital and Sustainable Development

11. Synergetic Leadership and Organizations

12. Appropriate/Adaptive Technology

13. Mutual Enrichment of Families and Friendships

14. Human Dignity and Human Harmony: Human Rights and Peace

15. Aesthetics Without Boundaries: 'Art from the Heart'   

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Five Basic Commitments

By Covenant Signatories

This is the English version of the principles which form part of the basis of the Pam¬ban¬sang Kasunduan para sa Ugnayang Pamayanan which was signed by the respective national presidents of the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts of the Philippines, and leaders of major national cooperatives, of some national environmental organizations on or by June 2, 2002 on the occasion od the “Green Families and Green Communities Festival” of World Environment Day 2002 in the Philippines. The original Pilipino text was drafted by Ed Aurelio Reyes, WED-Philippines chairman, in separate consultation with Roberto Pagdanganan, then chairman of the Philippine Cooperative Center and now chairman of the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), and Candelario Verzosa, former Executive Director of CDA

1. Commitment to the Value of Life. All committees and members of Ugnayan shall uphold the value of Life – human life, quality of life of the people, quality of life of the community itself, and the life of the natural environment which is the community’s home -- as immeasurable and therefore can not be assigned a monetary price. In making decisions, therefore, it is imperative for the community to consider which of the options would best promote the nature and future of the Life of the community and of its home.

2. Commitment to the Truth. As a living channel of reliable information for the community, each Lupon ng Ugnayan shall seek out and systematically collate all important data involving the environment of its community and shall spread any information labeled with its status of certainty, i.e. whether it is a proven certainty, a likelihood, a possibility, etc. Because the community needs complete and reliable information, all who spread inaccurate data labeled as “certain” shall be made to lose their credibility.

3. Commitment to the Community’s Right to Decide its Affairs and its Future. Each committee of Ugnayan shall uphold the citizens’ right to decide issues that affect their common welfare. Ugnayan shall help the community form its decisions on the basis of a free flow of information and opinions in open and honest discussions, and shall exercise suasion on government units concerned to consider well such decisions. Basic principles of democratic governance mandate that in the conservation and disposition of a community’s natural and social resources, the community’s will should be decisive, and on issues affecting larger scopes of governance (municipal, provincial, etc.) the will of the small communities forming these larger constituencies, through their synergized thoughts and decisions, should be considered decisive.

4. Commitment to the Value of Unity and Synergy. In all their actions, the Ugnayang Pamayanan committees shall be guided by the Prime Directive: Build and strengthen the unity of the people in the community. It shall link up the unlinked, coordinate the uncoor¬dinated and even seek to act as a living bridges among organizations or sections of the population that are not relating enough or at all, or are even hostile to one another. The best inter¬ests of the community can only be fully established and effectively asserted through unity and strong syn¬ergy (many people working really closely toge¬ther, teaming up on the basis of their commonalities and diversities) to coun¬teract the pressures of entities that tend to harm these interests.

5. Commitment to the All the Basic Rights. A committee of Ugnayan shall not undertake any act or even pronounce a declaration that would violate any of the basic rights of the citizens to freedom of thought and of expression, freedom of association and of collective action, or any of the basic human rights of the persons within or outside the community. The committee shall exert best efforts to help the community members to recognize and effectively assert their human rights which are an inseparable consequence of their dignity as human persons.

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