It's not jueteng, bobo

TRUE TO their bedeviling character, the rabid mongrels among the hold-outs in the fast thinning camp of embattled Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio have demonized the recall movement as jueteng-based and –directed.
This is obfuscation, a basic propaganda tool whereby the real issue is muddled with peripheral, even non-issues, to dim and render it indistinct.
Panlilio spewed the much-abused jueteng line in his dismissive reaction to the ANC’s breaking news of the Pampanga provincial board joining the recall movement: “This is because of jueteng and STL.”
That statement drew a flurry of texted reactions, most notable of which was that sent by erstwhile Panlilio top campaigner and fund-solicitor, former Bulacan Congressman Willie Buyson Villarama.
Said the half-Kapampangan Villarama (his mother is of an ilustrado family from Bacolor) : “This is a personal appeal. Can somebody please reach out to Gov. Panlilio and tell him that the real issue is not jueteng but his bad governance ; that he stopped from conveniently hiding behind the phantom of unknown evil forces (supposedly) out there to destroy him when in fact it (Panlilio’s destruction) is due to his own doing; that he endangered not just his position as governor but moreso the ideals of the Kapampangan crusade for good governance.” The enclosed words there I inserted for clarity.
In his interview on Pia Hontiveros’ Strictly Politics show over ANC too, Rosve Henson, president of the recall proponent Kambilan, Inc., made a mincemeat – as is his wont – of the jueteng-behind-the-recall-petition canard mouthed by Panlilio lawyer what’s-his-name Francisco in the same program.
So, asked Henson, more inquisitively than rhetorically:
Where is jueteng in the ongoing protest rally of the Balas boys against allegations of injustice, insult and arrogance inflicted on them by the Panlilio administration?
Where is jueteng in the perjury raps filed against Panlilio for “concealed or undeclared political contributions” during the campaign, principal of which were the millions from Pampanga’s Best’s Madame Lolita Hizon, and those that Villarama solicited from Makati businessmen?
Where is jueteng in the case filed with the Civil Service Commission by Dr. Eddie Ponio against Panlilio for “violation of the Magna Carta for Public Health”?
Where is jueteng in the case filed with the Ombudsman by the sangguniang panlalawigan against Panlilio for “gross negligence, gross misconduct and abuse of authority” arising from the non-implementation of Ordinance 176 on the equitable distribution of quarry shares?
Indeed, where is jueteng in all there?
And where is jueteng in the insistent, persistent, and consistent public demand for the resignation, nay, ouster, of Panlilio’s putative provincial administrator Atty. Vivian Dabu?
Where is jueteng in the fall-out from the Panlilio camp of his once most avid supporters in the civil society?
Where is jueteng in the resignation from the capitol of 13 members of Panlilio’s innermost circle?
It is not jueteng that is bedeviling Panlilio. It is the arrogance of power.
A text message from a former Panlilio lawyer hit the Governor right on the head: “The problem with Gov. Panlilio is that he has become too proud and bullheaded, thinking that civil society has no choice but to support him. It’s high time he realized he has no right pontificating good governance even as he abandoned the province by entrusting its affairs to one person.”
Or, as Panlilio elder in the clergy, the Rev. Fr. Resty Lumanlan, SVD, president of the Kapampangan Coalition, Inc. said on local TV: “Among Ed is not the crusade for good governance. He is just one symbol.”
And Among Resty’s concomitant lamentation: “Papalakaran ne ing probinsiya antimong parokya (He runs the province like a parish)…Ating good governance keni? Akakit mi kulang. (Is there good governance here? We see very little)…Anya mamaklas kami. (That is why we are rising (in protest)).
Need I add more?
It’s not jueteng, bobo!

Coup pals

A COUP – reported the perceptive Ding Cervantes in our front page yesterday – was launched last Tuesday against Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio. The coup pals no less than the civil society groups that moved mountains and flattened hills to make him win.
“These are former supporters of Among Ed who are no longer happy,” Rene Romero, chairman of the Advocacy for the Development of Central Luzon and president of the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry, introduced to the sangguniang panlalawigan the members of the civil society, himself included, that played a big role in Panlilio’s victory in the gubernatorial race.
Roll the drums now: Averell Laquindanum, campaign manager; Teresita Guanzon, finance committee chair with son Patrick Guanzon; Myrna Bituin, core leader of the Betis Group; spouses Rudy and Janet Mallari of the finance committee; campaign coordinator Ricardo Miranda of the Couples for Christ; the Rev. Arthur Tuazon, vanguard of the campaign for moral regeneration; NGO poster-person Nina Saplala; Dennis M. Dizon of Kapampangan Marangal Inc.; businessman Bong Mah of Kapampangan Coalition, Inc.; Liza Velez, niece of the resigned putative provincial legal officer; ex-seminarian Fil Rodriguez, Balas supervisor; former Bulacan Congressman Willie Villarama, also of Kapampangan Coalition, Inc.; and Agnes Romero, wife of Rene who was also with the finance committee.
No, the civil society groups did not come to the SP to embrace and sleep with the foresworn enemy of their revered idol.
“We come to you today in the name of peace and goodwill.” So their letter opened.
Baggaged as they were with the side – only the good side – of their beloved Governor on the myriad issues obtaining at the capitol, their expression of peace and goodwill was – to skeptical me – nothing more than a perfunctory greeting dictated by rudimentary etiquette.
For – my suspicious mind now in overdrive – in their hearts of hearts, if not in the very nucleus of their brains is well ensconced the fundamental diktat of the Governor – the SP is the stumbling block to all the good, the true, and the beautiful aspirations their Among Ed holds for Pampanga.
Okay, I concede that they could have entertained some doubts about their idol’s true motives and the soundness of his methods, having seen his feet of clay in the unraveling Balas story at the capitol grounds.
Still, as they have long been inhered and inured in the goodness, if not the holiness, of their Among, it would not be sheer cynicism to deem that their coming to the SP was a dare for Vice Gov. Yeng Guiao and his gang to prove their growing suspicions about their Among wrong.
“We eagerly await your side.” So they told the SP. Perhaps, hoping against hope that Yeng would choke on his very words and show all and sundry that indeed their Among was right in defining the SP as Stumbling Pack.
In character, Yeng methodically incised all issues the civil society members raised.
On the declaration of Arnedo Park as “freedom park”: “Right off the bat, we will prepare a resolution, and barring legal obstructions, may come out with it this week.”
The very reason given by their Among for his order to the police to disperse the protesting Balas boys was that Arnedo was no “freedom park.” On that score alone, it was plain to see in whose heart among the men at the capitol Panlilio’s oft-spat word “konsiyensya” was truly reposited.
On the status of the proposed budget for Balas and other pending supplemental budgets for approval: “We cannot just approve the release of funds without justification…We were not against approving the amount asked by the Governor, but no one could justify the need for such a big amount (P45 million for 160 Balas personnel) amid the downward trend in the quarry collections.” Of course, the SP gave half of the Balas budget, contrary to the pronouncements of the Governor. Documents and rational arguments gave the lie to Panlilio’s lay of the blame on the SP.
On the reinstatement of the dismissed Balas boys: “They were hired by the Office of the Governor without even the courtesy of informing us. They were fired by the Office of the Governor, again without our knowledge.” Clearly shown there where the problem lies. And it is not in Dabu, bobo.
What could have been the light that sparked some sort of conversion on the civil society groups was the SP’s open invitation for them to craft what they think would be best for the quarry industry, from a wage scheme for the workers to the automation of the operations, and present these to the SP for adoption. Thereby, an alliance between the civil society groups and the SP was formed to, in the words of Laquindanum, “pursue possible areas of cooperation…in the matter of good governance.”
“We respect your mandate from the people of Pampanga. We recognize the significant role you play in making good government more than a campaign pitch.” So said Laquindanum, not without some tinges of ruing over unfulfilled campaign promises by you-know-who.
So have the civil society groups at last seen the lie behind the halo they wrapped around Panlilio?
I will only believe so when Laquindanum, Bituin, Guanzon, Saplala, Mah, the Mallaris, et al start showing as much enthusiasm in ousting Panlilio as they did in electing him. Like, for instance, taking a lead role in the Recall Panlilio movement. A real coup, not a symbolic one, this time.
Then, and only then, can I truly behold them under the light of the words of that giant of an intellectual among the American Presidents, James Madison: “They have not suffered a blind veneration to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense.”

'The Gov has VD'

HORROR OF Horrors! The Reverend Governor, vowed to a life of celibacy, afflicted with a dreaded sexually-transmitted disease? No, way. Tell me it ain’t so.
In utter disbelief, almost pleading was I to Don Luisito, my seminary elder, who broke the salaciously scandalous morsel of a news to me over cups of espresso at the Old Manila in Robinsons Starmills.
Bobo, your compadre has no tulo (leak, euphemism for syphilis). By VD, I did not mean venereal disease. But the Governor’s VD is as deadly, not in the venereal… okay, sexual sense though. It is as debilitating, with his energy sapped: his own friends and supporters distancing themselves from him, treating him like a pariah, or, well, one with a horrible highly-contagious disease.
Okay, the distancing part I get – the estrangement from the Governor of his political fairy godmother, Madame Lolita Hizon; his pillar of support, Rene Romero; some of those in his civil society groups; plus the 13 resigners from his inner circle. But the affliction, I still can’t quite make.
Now you’re really the bobo. It’s Dabu, that’s who. Vivian Dabu. VD.
Ouch! Sakit matawag na bobo. Can’t do anything though. Don Luisito is my senior and at the Mater Boni Consilii Seminary we were taught to be courteous and respectful and not to respond in kind to our upperclassmen.
The Governor’s VD is wreaking havoc on the system of governance in the province. Like open pussy sores, the symptoms are manifest in the adversarial stance of the sangguniang panlalawigan and the municipal mayors, the disparagement of charity seekers at the capitol, the disgust of the health workers, the disdain in the infrastructure department. Why, even in the quarry operations – the only bright spot in the Panlilio administration – has been wracked with the VD virus, so to speak. Just listen to those Balas boys in delirium.
Now I follow you. Aside from the Dabu kind, the Governor is afflicted with another VD strain in Yeng Guiao. This is Vice Defiant. The Coach ever vigilant in denouncing the foibles and failures at the executive department. A different VD there – Vigilant Denouncer. Suits Yeng to a T, especially in the quarry issue.
Okay, you’ve just redeemed yourself from bobo-ism. Vainglorious Demigod, that is yet another strain of VD that hit the Governor. Most manifest in his having declared himself as having provided hope for the whole Philippines with what he has done for Pampanga. Plus, in his taking down the portraits of the former governors and at one time plastering all the walls of the capitol with his portraits. Vanity be damned!
It’s my turn now to make you think. On hindsight now, the Governor is inured to, rather, inhered in VD.
What do you mean? VD is innate in Panlilio?
With whom did the Governor train for the priesthood?
The Society of the Divine Word, I am told.
The Societas Verbi Divini -- you have forgotten your Ars Latina. Hence, SVD. Though a diocesan priest, Among Ed had SVDs as formators. And how did we make fun of these missionary orders when we were at Mater Boni? The Jesuits’ SJ was Society of Judas, the Belgians’ CICM was Can I Collect Money, the Oblates’ OMI was Order of the Most Ignorant, the Dominicans were Dogs of the Lord for Domini canis...
Yeah, and SVD was for Suffering from Venereal Disease. Corny. Still, Vivian Dabu’s VD notwithstanding, you are the worst VD afflicting the Governor.
Now, now, that’s uncalled for. It’s unfair and unreal to tag me VD. I have no VD in my system. There is neither a V nor a D in my moniker Bong, not even in my full baptismal name of Augustus Caesar Lacson y Zapata.
Still, you are the Governor’s worst VD. Vicious Damager that is, if not Vexatious Detractor, for all those singularly bad things you write about him.
Now, that’s VD, very damning.

The lost shepherd

BRIMMING WITH idealism, they came to the capitol with the singular mission of helping their revered leader impact his gospel of good governance in the psyche of the Kapampangan.
Broken by disappointment and disheartened by the turn of events, they stepped down from the capitol, one after the other.
Thirteen of 22 individuals who joyfully went up the capitol with Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio that glorious Day 1 of his administration have cleave official ties with him, highlighting some internecine wrangling within that innermost sacrosanct circle of the governor.
The 13th to leave – Panlilio’s own chief-of-staff Archie Reyes – made a most affirming revelation: “Pampanga does not deserve a bickering and divided leadership…It does not need division and disharmony especially within its own executive team.”
Division and disharmony do indeed stick out like the sorest thumb, with those who have left Panlilio’s immediate side now taken collectively. A roll call now:
Andy Alviz, of the original Miss Saigon London Westside fame and the moving spirit of the new-found source of Kapampangan pride ArtiSta. Rita once overseer of the capitol’s culture and tourism initiatives.
Corporate Vince Dizon who was appointed head of an economic enterprises department .
The beautiful broadcast personality Dalsa Hizon in and then out of the provincial information office. Ditto her “replacement,” Rochelle Aguilar, once of Workers Alliance Region III.
Capitol systems analyst Bel Katigbak and money whiz Marylou Tolentino of the finance department. Tolentino was the accountant of Panlilio’s foremost financial supporter Madame Lolita Hizon.
Putative provincial legal officer Atty. Ma. Elissa Velez, her assistant, sangguniang panlalawigan-accepted Atty. Joseph Quiambao, and one Atty. Atty. Arnel Manaloto. That’s three lawyers off the team in one fell swoop.
Political liaison officer Rey Deang, rumored to have been an understudy to the position of provincial administrator.
Social action mavenTess Briones and Roperly Syquia.
What gives at the Reverend Governor’s holy circle?
“Since I am one of those who support the clamor for the replacement of Atty. Dabu as provincial administrator, I believe that I can no longer be of help to his administration.” Reyes – capitol insiders concur – well spoke for all the others including Panlilio’s supporters outside his official realm – most notably, the tocino and tapa queen of Pampanga, the president of the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the so-called Betis Group.
To the point of nausea, our favorite line had to be vomited anew here: It’s Dabu, bobo.
So those who joined the Reverend Governor have disassociated from him. So what?
We have here – as my seminary elder, the parable-teller Luis Rivera says – the story of the Good Shepherd reversed.
“Ing istorya na ning melilyu na, melili pang pastul. The shepherd kept that one sheep in his tight embrace, losing the rest of the herd.”
Feeling biblical now: For what does it profit Panlilio to regain the support of his estranged followers, even gain the trust and confidence of all of Pampanga’s political leaders, if he should lose Atty. Vivian Dabu in exchange?
Amen.

The miracle is a mirage

TWENTY FOUR million and four hundred thousand pesos – yes, P24,400,000 – in all of 22 days in July 2007.
A collection of over P1 million for 13 days – the highest reaching P1.77 million on July 27. And a still commanding P750,000 as the lowest collection for the day, recorded on July 30.
With his father-son predecessors barely breaching the P20-million-a- year average mark in their 12-year reign, nothing short of a miracle did indeed Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio wield in his first month in office.
Going biblical now, the Reverend Governor did a Christ by multiplying the quarry income a thousand fold, setting P1 million a day as the benchmark not only of profitability, but more importantly, of honesty and integrity in local governance.
Hallelu-hallelu, Hallelujah! To that, even the cynic that I am heartfully agreed.
Two hundred and thirty million pesos – yes, a whopping P230,000,000 – by the end of his first full year in office still went the grain of a miracle. How these were (un)used though is another matter. It is the money that is of principal concern to us, at least in this piece.
Segue to July 2008 now – P13,485,000 in all of 23 days. A collection of over P1 million for only three days – July 11, 22, and 31. A disturbing P255,000 as the lowest collection for the day recorded on July 16 and 29.
A chasm of a difference of P10,920,000 between the collections of July 2007 and July 2008! A sheer drop of from P1 million to P586,304 daily average. (All the statistics cited here came from a matrix prepared by the Provincial Treasurer’s Office.)
So the difference was more than the total income for one year of Gov. Mark Lapid. So?
The Lapids’ incompetence had ceased to be the benchmark in the quarry collection, having been superseded by the miracle of the July 2007 collections. The Reverend Governor’s performance in the quarry collections is henceforth measured against that which he himself set.
Midas, after turning his first cup into gold, had to turn everything he touched into more solid gold. In keeping with his character. Gilding or plating just won’t do. That won’t be Midas.
So it must be too with Panlilio. The quarry collections have to be on the up-and-up, never on a downslide. In keeping with his miracle.
Else, it was no miracle. It was a mirage.
To parodize that Nora Aunor character in a movie about a miracle worker: Walang himala. Walang himala sa Balas, o sa pagbabareta. Ang himala – kung mayroon man – ay nasa pagkakapit-tuko ni Panlilio kay Dabu.
Believe. At your own peril.

Remembering Tirso

“SINASABI PO ng aking mga kalaban na ako ay mukhang kabayo. Mga sinungaling po ang mga iyan. Kayo na ang mismong nakakakita, hindi ako mukhang kabayo, ako ay mukhang tsonggo.” (My rivals say I look like a horse. They are liars. As you can well see, I don’t look like a horse. I look like a monkey)
“Matatapang po ang aking mga kalaban at sila ay inyong kinatatakutan. Ako po ay hindi natatakot sa kanila, sa katunayan sila ay aking hinahamon. Kung talagang sila’y matatapang, sige nga magpalit kami ng mukha.” (People are terrified of my rivals, but I am not. If they are really that fearsome, I challenge them – to trade their faces with mine.)
“Ako po si Tirso G. Lacanilao. Ang ibig pong sabihin ng G ay guwapo. Ang spelling po nito ay g-a-g-o.” (I am Tirso G. Lacanilao. G stands for handsome. It is spelled stupid.)
“Y Tirso mayap ya, maganaka ya pa, andiyang matsura ya.” (To the tune of rap: Tirso is good, he is kind, even if ugly.)
Only Tirso can get away with murdering himself at the hustings and live to win elections. Independent, ticketless vice mayor in 1992 and 1995, mayor in 1998, 2001 and 2004. So he lost in his sangguniang panlalawigan bid in 2007. It was a half-, nay, quarter-hearted try at best, going through the motions of a campaign that started and ended with the filing of his certificate of candidacy.
In the field of politics where face is a premium, self-deprecation has never been raised this high. And paid most handsomely.
Politics, as practiced here, was the least of Tirso’s concerns. Moved as he was to serve, and serve best, his constituents. In his first term, Apalit was adjudged the cleanest and greenest town in Pampanga, in the whole of Central Luzon and was finalist in the national level, earning a coveted Gawad Pangulo sa Kapaligiran.
In 2001, Apalit was hailed Outstanding LGU for Livelihood Skills Development.
It was also in Tirso’s administration that the municipal coffers increased with improvement in market collections and sound fiscal management. From 1998 to 2003, the annual income of Apalit rose to P301 million, its internal revenue allotment to P209 million.
“Bayan ang amo, utusan si Tirso.” (The people are the master, Tirso is mere slave.) That well summed up Tirso’s political philosophy. All the honors heaped on him he passed on to his people: “Sa Apaliteno ang karangalan, ako ay abang instrumento lamang nila sa adhika at mithiin nilang kapayapaan, kaayusan at kaunlaran.” (Honor is to the people of Apalit as I am merely their instrument in their aspirations towards peace, order and prosperity.)
Thus it was that Tirso made the very antithesis of the traditional politician. That it was that he was called Tatang by his people, honored elder and selfless provider. Even stern disciplinarian.
“ Kung ayaw ninyo ang patakaran ko sa pagdidisiplina sa inyo, huwag ninyo akong iboto. Ikampanya ninyo ang mga kalaban ko. Pero habang ako ang mayor dito, sumunod kayo.” (If you don’t agree with the discipline I am implementing here, don’t vote for me. Campaign for my rivals. But so long as I am mayor, you have to follow me.) That he impacted upon grumbling tricycle drivers who did not want to part with their slippers, shorts and sandos while plying their routes.
Tirso was not spared from being enmeshed in some controversies, the worst of which was his having been reported to have admitted over the radio receiving money from gambling lords.
Tirso’s simple honesty, coupled with his clarity of language, that saved him from a suspension order from the Department of the Interior and Local Government and court summons.
“Ang sinabi ko ay ako ay nakatanggap, hindi tumatanggap.” (What I said was I received (once), not I was receiving regularly.) Further clarifying that he did not know the source of the money that was left in a paper bag on his table; that the money was distributed to the charity seekers then present at his office; that he tasked his men to look for the source of the money who – after two years was identified as one “Dante” – and by then dead. Case closed. End of controversy.
Looking forward to the end of his third term, Tirso told this writer he was already brimming with excitement on the prospect of returning to the job he loved most – being a latero , a smith in his car repair business, and spending more time with his horses, his other passion.
July 31, Thursday, 2:30 p.m. Assassins’ bullets snuffed out all his passions. Good God, why did it have to end this way? Will most surely miss you, Tatang.

Eddie 2010

IS IT true that the image of Mama Mary has been taken out of the Office of the Governor?
It was my friend Narsing asking an acquaintance, a capitol employee named Senyong, we chanced upon at Fiorgelato in SM City Pampanga one early evening.
What image? I asked, cutting off any reply to the first question.
I am not sure if it was Fatima or the Miraculous Medal but it was that which was placed on the kariton backdropped with a cardboard inscribed “Dala ta la ding daing ding pakakalulu king kapitolyu” pushed by Among Ed Panlilio from the cathedral to the Comelec office when he filed his certificate of candidacy, Narsing clarified.
Yes, I think I saw it the first and only time I went to my compadre’s office last year. I was kind of touched by its presence so as to reflect that as Among Ed came under the protective care of Mama Mary during the campaign, so he would now be under her caring guidance to serve her children well as their servant-leader. So what happened?
Mama Mary went the way of the previous governors, Senyong said matter-of-factly.
What? Mama Mary fed to the rats and cockroaches at the ceiling of the Benigno Aquino Hall? I nearly choked on my macchiato. That is sacrilege! How could a priest, even if suspended from his priestly functions, do such a thing? Governor Panlilio has not suspended himself from his faith, right? Got to ask Bishop Ambo about this.
Calm down, boy, Mama Mary was stored in some appropriate place, Senyong assured.
So why was she taken away from the Among’s office?
In the spirit of ecumenism, so the Governor himself said. You know how it is with other religions when it comes to “graven” images.
Spare me.
Aha! I knew it! It was Narsing as though making the discovery to the cure of AIDS. Now, everything is coming into place.
What do you mean?
Tell me, is Atty. Vivian Dabu Catholic?
Born Again, Senyong said. And he left, fearful that some of the Governor’s men frequenting SM would see him talking to me.
She is indispensable to the Governor.
It does not take much genius to know that. Everybody has been ganging up on her, especially the Governor’s own civil society groups, yet she stays.
You know why?
Other than the malicious insinuations woven around otherwise innocent, even commendable, stories of their being on the job up to the wee hours at the capitol or at the Governor’s house in Clark, I don’t know why.
Ah, serves you right for hitting the Governor at every opportunity thus depriving you of the morsels of information coming out of his very own circle.
Okay, tell me.
The removal of Mama Mary is a sine qua non to the total support of a powerful group of non-Catholics for Panlilio.
The Catholics have not given up on him, why would he court non-Catholic support?
To pursue a national agenda...
Panlilio for President in 2010, you believe that?
Panlilio believes it. A number of his people quoted him as saying, “Because of what I have done for Pampanga, I have given hope to the whole Philippines.”
He has started believing his own propaganda, crafted for him by the Ateneo and the Inquirer.
Panlilio has another believer.
Yeah, Marni Castro!
Bobo, Brother Eddie Villanueva, that’s who. Panlilio has become a regular fixture in the television and radio programs, as well as in gatherings of the Jesus Is Lord Fellowship. There is a so-called council of ministers composed of pastors and preachers of other denominations that he most defers to now. The recent forum on good governance was their call.
Okay, I got you. I see now, an Eddie-and-Eddie tandem in 2010. It does not automatically mean Panlilio will be the candidate for President.
Neither does it mean Villanueva. What matters now is they have forged an understanding and laying down the groundwork for a national campaign.
So Mama Mary had to go?
In the exigencies of politics, why not?
Pray this ain’t so. I may have given up on Panlilio as a governor. But I still have faith in him as a priest.

Leadership crisis

‘WHY PAY P22,000 per seat when we have plenty of heroes here, leaders that are tried and tested in crisis?” asked Senator Richard Gordon, finding incredulous the high cost of hearing former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani speak in person.
Giuliani was speaker in a forum dubbed “Leadership in Times of Crisis” at the Makati Shangri-la Tuesday where a table for 12 cost P242,000, a “priority table” near the stage, P300,000 and the last two rows the P22,000-seat.
The erudite Gordon has a point. We have a surfeit of tried and tested leaders like himself, like City of San Fernando Mayor Oscar Rodriguez – to name just two – whose characters were forged through the crucible of crises, not the least of which was the Mount Pinatubo catastrophe.
A nation in perpetual crisis, both natural and man-made, the Philippines is the perfect laboratory for “Leadership in Times of Crisis.”
So, why the need for Rudy the Rock – the moniker he got for presiding over the rise of New York City from the devastation of 9/11 – to tell us what it’s all about?
Blame the persistence in our collective memory of the superiority of the White Big Brother in knowing what is best for us little brown ‘uns. Ah, the indelibility of our colonial mentality. After all these years of our proclaimed independence, the 300 years of Spanish colonialism and more than 50 years of American imperialism are still well ensconced in the Filipino psyche.
Especially among our ilustrados who find P22,000 a seat – take-home pay for the day of some 50 wage earners – loose change vis-à-vis the great opportunity offered only to the chosen few to rub elbows with Giuliani. It was all image, not message that they paid for.
What Giuliani spoke about was the least that mattered to these ilustrados. Leadership manuals from the Harvard Business School, and those culled from the experiences of business and political leaders have certainly more substance than Giuliani’s talk.
Even if one wanted pure Giuliani leadership, he need not fork over P22,000 just to get something from him.
Saturday before Giuliani’s expensive peroration, I was rummaging through the stacks of books at Booksale in Robinsons Starmills. Guess what I found – Leadership by Rudolph W. Giuliani, talk miramax books, published 2002 by Hyperion, New York.
Giuliani’s talk at the Makati forum centered on his “Six Pillars” of leadership. The book had not only six but 14 great columns that provide the base of support to leadership, which comprised the very titles of the chapters.
So self-explanatory, a simple scan of the table of contents would make the reader readily understand what the book was all about.
In my case, there was automatic cross-checking of Giuliani’s precepts with some similar as well as dissimilar ones from other books on leadership, including The Art of War, Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun, The 48 Steps to Power, Certain Trumpets, and The Heart of a Leader to name but a few.
And some introspection too: I put the faces of local leaders either as the theses or anti-theses to Giuliani’s chapter titles.
Like Mabalacat Mayor Boking Morales as a testament to Weddings Discretionary, Funerals Mandatory. No, this has nothing to do with the five-term mayor’s marital state but everything with his self-imposed obligation to attend the wakes and funerals of his constituents.
Vice Gov. Yeng Guiao makes a paladin for First Things First and Prepare Relentlessly be it in his coaching job in the PBA or in going about his work at the capitol, especially when at odds with the Governor.
Ah, the Governor. Notwithstanding the accolades from the ilustrados’ Ateneo de Manila and the inquisitorial Inquirer, Eddie Panlilio makes the antithetical representation for the chapters, to wit:
Surround Yourself With Great People, he being surrounded by only one, and not even near-great, at that.
Everyone Accountable, All of the Time, exempting himself as he lays the blame on others for any failure of his administration.
Reflect, Then Decide, kneejerk urges and surges were those insipid memos of “caretaker administration,” “blanket authority,” and the non-confirmation, to name just three.
Be Your Own Man, so, ain’t the Governor unbecomed by a woman?
Loyalty: The Vital Virtue, so why are his campaign supporters Madame Lolita Hizon and family, Rene Romero and fellow businessmen now saying those nasty things about his (mal)administration? So what do you make of the constant comings and goings of staff at the Governor’s Office?
Underpromise and Overdeliver, he promised to take the concerns of the poor to the capitol, he delivered the desperate charity-seekers to the fundless provincial board.
For the rest of the chapters – Develop and Communicate Strong Beliefs; Stand Up to Bullies; Study. Read. Learn Independently; Organize Around a Purpose; Bribe Only Those Who Will Stay Bribed – make your own opinion.
This much, and more, I got from Giuliani without having to attend that Makati forum and scrape my knees for P22,000. The cover price of his book? US$25.95. I got it for a measly P120.00, jacketed and hardcover.
As an aside now, maybe I may have been hasty in dismissing Giuliani’s talk about “Leadership in Times of Crisis,” believing that Filipinos can do a lot better.
I guess the subject I had in mind was “Times of Crisis in Leadership.”