Atty. Arnel Casanova - Founder of AvantChange, and general counsel at the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA)

Atty. Casanova, who sits as general counsel of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority, knows what it takes to be able to push beyond despair. And it is in these lessons in his own life that he draws the drive to be of service to others.

In 2007, Atty. Casanova founded AvantChange to promote social entrepreneurship in Asia. He has also been teaching a course in this discipline at the Ateneo School of Government.

With faith and perseverance, he was able to break through poverty and use his own experiences to lift others off destitution.

In this interview, Atty. Casanova talks about his work for the government, particularly the Bases Conversion and Development Authority, and what it truly means to be a public servant. He shares with us his inspirations in being one for others, and the key personalities who have shaped his philosophies and principles.

All these and more only here on Greater Good Philippines.

Jay-R Patron: Will you tell us what you do currently?

Arnel Casanova: Professionally I’m the general counsel for the Bases Conversion and Development Authority. I”m also corporate secretary for the Fort Bonifacio Development Corporation. In my personal time I teach social entrepreneurship in Ateneo de Manila. I also do some work on public service, volunteer work.

Jay-R Patron: What is an ordinary day at work to you like?

Arnel Casanova: Well, ordinary is always busy. I have lots of work here in the office. We have so much development going on here at Fort Bonifacio and we’re building public infrastructure such as the Subic-Tarlac Expressway project, and we also developed John Hay Development Economic Zone, the Poro Point Economic Zone, and the Clark Special Economic Zone.

Jay-R Patron: So that includes traveling to those places?

Arnel Casanova: Yes.

Jay-R Patron: How often do you travel?

Arnel Casanova: I travel a lot; coming from Fort Bonifacio to Clark, Baguio, Poro Point. But most of the time I spend my office hours here in Fort Bonifacio. My work brings me to those places.

Jay-R Patron: What sustains you in the profession? Where do you get your inspiration?

Arnel Casanova: I like my work. Here in the Bases Conversion and Development Authority we create communities, we build cities. Like as you can see there’s Fort Bonifacio. We built a city out of a former military base and you can see also at Clark, it was a former US military base, now it’s a special economic zone, and we built a highway connecting it to the Subic Freeport Zone. It’s like playing a game of SimCity. That was my favorite video game when I was younger. It’s like putting it in reality.

Jay-R Patron: Is McKinley Hill under the BCDA?

Arnel Casanova: Yes. McKinley Hill is a joint venture under BCDA and Megaworld Corporation, and the Alliance Global Corporation .

Jay-R Patron: Ok. So what is the Bases Conversion and Development Authority? What does it do?

Arnel Casanova: It was created by the Philippines government through the congress to address the dislocation of Filipinos when the US military bases agreement was terminated. So we decided, “What are we going to do with the infrastructure that the US forces had left?” We decided that… also coming from the heels of the coup de etat in 1989, the Philippine government decide to sell Fort Bonifacio and from the revenues generated through that sale, we funded the development of Central Luzon by developing the Clark Airforce Base and the Subic Naval Base and other minor US military camps such as the John Hay Air Station and the Wallace Air Station at the Poro Point. So it’s really development work. We are tasked by the government and the congress to generate economic development for the victims of the Mount Pinatubo eruption. That is the location of the US military bases, and the victims of the coup de etat during that time.

Jay-R Patron: You founded AvantChange.

Arnel Casanova: Yes.

Jay-R Patron: What is AvantChange and what does it do?

Arnel Casanova: AvantChange is a social enterprise that was formed by Mason fellows in the Kennedy School of Government in Harvard. It’s actually born out of a project we had with the social entrepreneurship course under Professor Gordon Bloom, and our objective really was to form a social entrepreneurship education and training here in Asia. We left that the problems here in Asia are so diverse and there are so much opportunities for social entrepreneurs to thrive. But we need discipline and training for the social entrepreneurs so that we can help them come up with innovative ways and come up with a network and the infrastructure for their further growth.

Jay-R Patron: To you personally, how do you define social entrepreneurship?

Arnel Casanova: Social entrepreneurship is solving social problems through market-based solution and innovation. We call it social because particularly it’s created to address a particular social problem, an identified social problem. We call it entrepreneurship because we look at market-based solutions in order to sole that social problem. Maybe you’ve heard of the base of the pyramid approach where we look at the poor as a market also, and at the same time providing service to them. Basically it boils down to sustainability. We want social enterprises to be sustainable. If you’re doing good, then it must be sustainable. We should not always depend on grants and donations because eventually this funding may dry up. But if the program is good and it can help a lot of people, we must be able to make it sustainable and we can scale them up so that it can help further a greater number of the population. Maybe we can even replicate that in other places in other countries.

Jay-R Patron: Where do you think the Philippines is in terms of adopting the concept of social entrepreneurship?

Arnel Casanova: We have lots of social entrepreneurs particularly here in the Philippines because we have so much problems. Social entrepreneurs look at problems as opportunities. And there’s a culture among Filipinos to really help. You’ve heard about the bayanihan concept. Gawad Kalinga is formed through that culture of helping others. However, most of our social entrepreneurs, as we call them, are still trapped in that concept of having grants and donations. But we are trying to educate them to adopt a market-based approach to make it sustainable. That’s why I’m also teaching at the Ateneo School of Government particularly at this course so that we can put a discipline to this field.

Jay-R Patron: What has drawn you towards the promotion and implementation of social entrepreneurship? The practice of it?

Arnel Casanova: I think this is really a solution to a positive change. We have lots of problems in the Philippines, yes, but we can also provide solutions instead of just demonstrating… demonstrations and rallies are also relevant because it’s a way of airing out your grievance to the government and getting the attention of the government to a particular problem. But some people should be able to act and do the work, not just bring it to the attention of government. But also really do the work on the field and on the ground. I’ve seen people can really, even poor people can really generate so much revenues for them, and there’s a lot of human dignity involved that we must be able to project. Poor people must have that sense of dignity so that they can have the potential and the hope to really work for themselves and not simply depend on other people’s generosity.

Jay-R Patron: In retrospect, did you ever think that you would be doing what you’re doing now? Or at what point in your life did you realize that you need to do this?

Arnel Casanova: I really… my studies in Harvard was quite eye-opening because when I enrolled into this course, a lot of opportunities had been opened and a lot of possibilities had been opened. Because I’m in the government, my perspective then was public service but on a perspective of a government, which is usually just to provide services. But the social entrepreneurship provided me a perspective where people can really be empowered to help themselves. Government can only do so much. At the end of the day, it’s still the people who would really have to help themselves. But we have to provide them the opportunity, the skills and the resources so that they can help themselves, particularly uplifting their dignity in the first place.

Jay-R Patron: Attorney, what was your childhood like?

Arnel Casanova: I came from a very poor family. My mother was a seamstress and my father was unemployed. We were eight in the family. We had no land. We had no resource except for our labor.

Jay-R Patron: Where are you from originally?

Arnel Casanova: I am from Batangas. So, actually that’s also why I am doing social entrepreneurship because I saw in myself that I was able to do it even without money, even without land. Al I had was myself, my knowledge, and my persistence to really go beyond my economic status then. I looked at it as a challenge, my poverty as a challenge. Looking back, my economic status made me think that it’s really up to me, that I have to work hard, I have to study hard, and at the end of the day there is merit in all of those things. As long as you with dignity, people can really help you.

Jay-R Patron: What was your fondest childhood memory?

Arnel Casanova: I have a lot. Even if I came from a poor family, I felt that my childhood was quite a happy one. Yes, we didn’t have much food on the table but our family loved each other. My fondest memories would always bring me to the times where I was tending the carabaos with my brothers in the field and then we picked those wild guavas…

Jay-R Patron: Did you also get to catch and play with dragonflies?

Arnel Casanova: Yes, yes. Childhood in the rural area was very happy.

Jay-R Patron: What role does your family play in molding you to be what you are right now?

Arnel Casanova: My family is a very big influence in me. Without family support, I would not have made it. The love of your parents, the love of my brothers and sisters, and the sense of responsibility that I have towards them, because in the province, our culture is that you help your own family and that helps a lot because it’s a network at the same time. It’s a support system. I saw my mother working hard, working decently and with dignity, and my father as well, working with integrity. That kind of family brought me to the way I am now. That was a very good family.

Jay-R Patron: Looking through your biography, I notice lot of awards and recognitions. Out of all those, which one to is the most special?

Arnel Casanova: I think one of my… well, I don’t usually bring so much attention to awards but since I get them, well I think the Legion of Honor award is quite special for me because I got involved in the peace negotiations with the military rebels at that time, the group of Gringo Honasan. I was the one who drafted the peace agreement and was able to recover weapons from them. So this satisfaction comes from the realization that I was able to bring peace at a certain point in the country, and that was something that no Filipino has ever done, and I was put in my history and at that place to do it. So, I love doing that.

Jay-R Patron: Why is giving back important to you?

Arnel Casanova: I always feel that my happiness lies in the happiness of others. I cannot be happy being alone. My life is something that should be offered to my fellowman and woman. My happiness lies with somebody else’s happiness as well; my family, my brothers and sisters, my friends, perhaps even my enemies. If we are able to offer ourselves, or to think beyond ourselves, it brings so much satisfaction that we are able to do it. That’s what did in the peace negotiations. That’s what I’m doing here in the BCDA, creating treaties. These are things that are far beyond greater than myself, which I could not do without others. But at the same time, my happiness is doing things for them.

Jay-R Patron: If not this, what you’re doing now, what would you consider as your purpose and passion in life?

Arnel Casanova: Well my passion is to help, and that is my purpose. I want to be remembered as someone who has made somebody else’s life better. That’s why I’m doing all these things. In the end of the day, it’s not really the money. It’s just coincidental that when you do things with passion, wealth follows. But at the end of the day, it’s really that influence you have, that impact that you have in somebody’ else’s life. If somebody would tell me that I have made their life better, then I would be happy to go.

Jay-R Patron: What has so far been your greatest life challenge and how did you overcome it?

Arnel Casanova: My greatest challenge perhaps is when there’s so much problem in society and you want to help, sometimes I feel so helpless. And there are challenges even in my office which I could not change because of the enormity of the problem. There’s always a temptation to be cynical about things, to lose hope, and to be desperate about it. But I think my life has been founded on hope and I don’t want to lose that. Hope is a very powerful tool. It makes you dream. It makes you achieve things which you could not have possibly imagined. I think that’s my greatest challenge, how to keep that hope in the midst of all the problems, in the mist of all the challenges, how to keep that hope alive.

Jay-R Patron: What has been your greatest life accomplishment?

Arnel Casanova: I think I have not done it yet. As I said, I think it’s up to people to say, not for me. My life is not mine. It’s something that is offered to others. If people can say that I have made a positive chance in their life, I would consider that my greatest achievement.

Jay-R Patron: Where does faith play in all these?

Arnel Casanova: Faith plays, is in the center of it. Because to believe in something that you cannot touch, to believe that there’s something good that would come out of uncertainty, that is the role of faith in my life. Coming from a poor background, a society would consider me a loser already, because I have no resources, no political connections, no influence in society. But faith brings me that ability to believe in myself that there’s a God who is very powerful, who is all-knowing, who is very kind and generous, who is merciful, and believing in a God like that makes me believe in myself as well, and provides me that strength and the courage to move on despite the difficulties.

Jay-R Patron: Who has played as a mentor in your life?

Arnel Casanova: I believe my… well… there are so many people who have influenced me, particularly my mother and my father, and also my former parish priest, a former Italian missionary, who I have met in the seminary. I have entered the seminary for six years. He has really embodied a life of service, a life dedicated to God and to others. That kind of dedication inspired me.

Jay-R Patron: What have you experienced or learned in those six years in the seminary that you use to this day?

Arnel Casanova: That’s what I am trying to live, a sense of service; knowing that you can only derive happiness when I’m able to offer my life to others. It’s not really the money, or material things. Yes they are important. But they should be only instruments in pursuit of something greater than ourselves.

Jay-R Patron: Has there ever been a situation in your life where someone has told you the right words, at the right time? If so, what did he or she say to you?

Arnel Casanova: I guess that was my mother. There was a time when I was about to give up. I was 13 years old then… and I saw my mother, how hard she was working. She was not sleeping for a number of nights just to finish those dresses. I was telling her that I want to stop studying, stop going to school and just work in the farm, to help her. But my mother simply looked me in the eye and told me, “You are my lucky son. So you have to study.” I guess I have always remembered that image in my mind when we were walking on a rural road, unpaved road, and it was dusk. The sun was setting. My mother was looking at me so gently, and so lovingly. And it lifted my spirits.

Jay-R Patron: If there was one message out of all that has been discussed today that you would like to tell our readers, what would that message be?

Arnel Casanova: The message, perhaps, that I want to convey is that we will be faced with a lot of difficulties in our lives, we will be faced with so much challenges, to a point that we’re about to give up. We are about to give up our faith in ourselves, we are about to give up our faith in others, we may even come to a point that we’re going to give up our faith in God. But in all these, we should look at all these challenges, difficulties, and sacrifices as a way of tempering and strengthening our character, our soul and our spirit, at the end of the day we will succeed. As long as we hold on to it; hold on to our faith, hold on to our hope, always believe in the goodness of people, and I think there is always a reward at the end of the day.

Jay-R Patron: What can we expect from Atty. Casanova, and the BCDA, and AvantChange, in the next months, in the next years?

Arnel Casanova: I’m actually looking at expanding the horizon that I’m working on, that’s why I embark on social entrepreneurship because I want to impact more people. I want to help more people other than working at BCDA because eventually I have to leave this office. People would have to assume the position that I’m occupying now so that they can have a chance for leadership, but at the same time I want to have a greater impact on people, people’s lives. I want to help a greater number of people, because in helping them I’m helping myself as well.