Country before self

Why do people work in government?

I am, of course, not referring to those holding elective and appointive positions that carry with them glitz and glamor but to those unheralded rank-and-file and even middle management public servants behind the desks who perform eight-hour, five or even six days a week jobs.

Is it because they didn’t have much of a choice? That they would have very much preferred to work with the country’s top corporations that offer double the pay but their educational backgrounds and professional experiences are not up to par?

Some would say that they chose to work in a government office because it is more stable and the benefits provided by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) are even better than those given to employees in the private sector (GSIS members are entitled to life insurance coverage, retirement benefits, scholarships for children of low-income members, among others)

But there are those who will say that they chose to become public servants because they want to serve the people.

Just recently, I was finally able to finish the movie Heneral Luna. I wasn’t able to watch it earlier, not because I wasn’t interested, but because I wanted to give it my full attention. One of the hugot lines that made me reflect on what is happening in our country now is one delivered by Gen. Antonio Luna. “Bayan o sarili, pumili ka.”

Then there’s another, also by Luna: “Mas madali pang pagkasunduin and langit at lupa kaysa dalawang Pilipino tungkol sa kahit na anong bagay.” But then let’s save this second line for later.

“Bayan or sarili, pumili ka,” should be a slogan that each and every public servant, whether one occupying the highest position or the lowest ranked, should keep in his mind and heart every single day.

I believe that there are still many makabayan in the ranks of the government serving us today. Yes, I am positive that there are still many selfless public officers who choose to serve us with integrity and to the best of their abilities. 

Results, transparency, and convergence are my personal metrics in judging whether employees in a particular government agency are choosing to serve the nation first over their personal interests. Yes, it must be a team effort. Our public servants should be like Luna, fearless  in calling out the negligence of his fellow officers in the spirit of public service.  

In connection with this, one of the few government agencies that passed my metrics is the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

For many revenue-generating agencies, collection has always been a problem due to corruption in many levels. But this does not seem to be problem as far as the NTC is concerned.

As a regulatory agency, the NTC was able to collect P6.228 billion, which is 37 percent higher than the P4.558-billion target set by the Presidential Development Budget Coordination Committee for 2018. For the past few years, the NTC has been a consistent topnotcher in the leaderboard of fee-collecting government agencies.

Aside from contributing to the national treasury, exceeding its target enables the NTC to fund the public’s free internet access.

Executive Order 2, also known as the Freedom of Information (FOI) Program, which was signed in 2016, is considered as one of the hallmarks of the Duterte administration in its earnest effort to bring about positive change to our country.

One of its features is the creation of the Electronic FOI (eFOI) Portal which is an online request platform open to the public  that facilitates requests for data and information from various government agencies. As of November 2018, the eFOI website had around 8,600 requests for information from 346 government agencies that are on board the portal.

The NTC has bested hundreds of other agencies in bagging the eFOI award. It was recognized for being able to timely act on requests from its stakeholders. I tried requesting for a simple data from another agency three months ago and up to this day, I have not received a single word from them. If the NTC can do it, why can’t it? I guess the NTC information officers are just simply makabayan enough to give importance to their stakeholders’ needs as well as to the administration’s transparency campaign.

In the recent bidding for the third telco conducted by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the NTC, there were those who were saying that the said bidding was hastily done. What they failed to appreciate was that throughout the preparation, including in the drafting of the memorandum circulars, various stakeholders and experts both from the national government agencies and private sector were involved.

The genius that is the Highest Committed Level of Service required of the third telco player was a result of a convergence of the best minds whose interests are to revolutionize our telecommunications industry. Raising the bar as to how these matters imbued with public interest should be carried out was not a selfish act; it’s for our common good.

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