. Where credit’s due

It’s a yearend tradition to continue the recognition of men and women who made outstanding contributions to the service. Many in government considered it an honor to be singled out by my father, Manong Ernie Maceda, in this space. If his standards were exactingly high, no one would argue. He had earned the right to evaluate performance given his own multiyear (58 years), cross department, high level, impassioned record. 

We needn’t be outstanding ourselves to demand the same measure of others. Excellence is what the job requires. Along with commitment, hard work, dedication and devotion. Still, it was always difficult to come up with a top 10.

Cranking up the positive. In the 3rd quarter, SWS polled 77% satisfaction rating of our bureaucracy. This 4th quarter, Pulse has our top 4 national officials tracking huge increases in their approval and trust rates. Even Vice President Leonor Robredo earned a gift bump. We, the people are generally content with our public servants. The economy continues to be sound. Poverty incidence has declined at a faster pace than previous administrations. President Rodrigo Roa Duterte is coming through on his promise to the people of a comfortable life. Both the tip of the pyramid upper class and the rest of us at the big base. 

Today, we applaud a number of the executive officials who helped him get there. At the Agriculture Department, Sec. William Dar, came in as an elixir for a moribund sector. The most qualified appointee ever, his experience and international stature was supposed to reglamorize the farm. Well, he hit the ground running but he got more for the bargain. He had to placate the palay farmers taking the hit for us from rice tariffication, pending the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund’s positive effects. And then, the African Swine fever scourge. With anyone else at the helm, we may not have outrun this virus as swiftly. Presiding over these “cures” is part of leadership. We are confident that this will be followed also by leadership on his platform of 4% agriculture growth from last year’s sub 1%, without need of a learning curve.

Finance Sec. Carlos Dominguez, one of the captains on the Duterte team, has been keeping his eye on the economic ball. Tough decisions have been his curse but he has never begged off. Here we are, for example, slogging through successive fiscal reform packages (long overdue), rice tariffication and import liberalization even in the middle of economic surges. This is the prescription from men who see the bigger picture. We will be better off in the long term, economically, because Sec. Dominguez and his team never wavered from using the administration’s awesome mandate as “the spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down.”

Sec. Gregorio Honasan, in his usual inconspicuous manner, is grittily helming the DICT as it rolls out key connectivity programs and cybersecurity systems, together with last mile Free Wifi across the country. While this is ongoing, he has reorganized his Department; is undertaking an audit of frequency optimization in preparation for their more equitable redistribution; and is finalizing the policy on shared infrastructure. He has taken steps to  further level the playing field by pushing for the entry of a 4th telecom player. Don’t look now but the proactive Secretary concedes that this player may even turn out to be the government itself. 

With Foreign Sec. Teodoro Locsin Jr., you never get half baked, tentative positions. The country’s first diplomat has not lost his own voice. You may not always agree with what he says and how he says it but in his lucid intervals, he is formidable. He has spoken out against China and has, more than once, disagreed with the President. Being so visible on the international stage, this mental toughness and drama has definitely served him, and us, well in his many roles. 

Sec. Mark Villar of DPWH is another silent star of the Cabinet. Whether or not the build bonanza is on pace, those public works have been popping up: roads, bridges, viaducts, etc. His golden pedigree shines through as he has consistently gotten the job done.

Berna Romulo Puyat of Tourism, Ramon Lopez of Trade and Industry, Eduardo Año of Interior and Local Government, Roy Cimatu of Environment and Natural Resources join perennial outstanding performer Leonor Briones of Education on the list of 2019’s best. 

Of course, these men and women have gotten their act together under the steady hand of the Shepherd, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea. The toughest job in government is to be gatekeeper and manage the flow of information to the Office of the President. Unimpeded access and incontestable loyalty are prerequisites and the ES has both. Part of his job description:“Decide, for and in behalf of the President, matters not requiring personal presidential attention; Exercise supervision, in behalf of the President, over the various agencies under the Office of the President; Exercise primary authority to sign papers “By authority of the President”.

Person of the year. Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes. Our comments on Judge Andres Soriano who denied Government’s motion to have Senator Sonny Trillanes arrested apply, mutatis mutandis: “Some reason that Judge Soriano (Solis-Reyes) was just doing his (her) job. This is true. But if you isolate the duty from how it’s performed, you betray your want of appreciation of its milieu…. Commonplace decisions, when brewed in the cauldron of highly polarizing national pressures, evolve from ordinary to monumental. To have to do it under the glare of the spotlight magnifies the difficulty quotient. By all measures, Soriano’s (Solis-Reyes’)ruling was heroic.

There is a four-fold litmus test for the judiciary – honesty, integrity, probity and competence. These personal qualities should survive even when allegiances fade. Judge Soriano’s (Solis-Reyes’) example reveals how there is a 5th pillar that undergirds these traits when exigencies test your resolve. You also have to be brave.” 

A PROSPEROUS 2020 TO OUR READERS AND THEIR LOVED ONES!