instances, the perpetuation of power and financial gain in favor of the governor and/or the political party or dynasty to which the governor belongs, became the main consideration in these decisions and actions. The deviation (corruption) here is simply one where loyalty to self, or to a group or interests other than the vision and mission of the organization, constituency or nation, becomes the main consideration of the governor in the exercise of choices and action. Even in the most powerful dynasties and empires, these deviations and excesses eventually led to uprising , revolution and eventual rectification, some of which were carried out with extreme physical violence The core value of Service need to be characterized by its required quality and quantity. The required quality of service in public governance is one that is sensitive and dedicated to the needs and interests (vision, mission, goals, objectives ) of the greater majority of the constituents, without neglecting those of the minorities, perhaps even to the extent of sacrificing self-interests. Few are the honorable acts of leaders who in the face of proven failure of governance, courageously but gracefully bowed out of office for the sake of the integrity of the office and the preservation of the credibility of the system of governance. In the Philippine setting, we have witnessed many situations where the incumbent leader or governor tenaciously stuck to office and power despite overwhelming evidence of catastrophic failure of governance or major deviations from the core values of public governance, and which are even proven through duly established fair and legal processes . In traditional Japanese culture, “hara-kiri” or suicide is an honorable act of accepting failure. In the Philippines, the responsibility or innocence of leaders for catastrophic failure, national plunder or even murder, takes forever to prove. We are sometimes internationally referred to as the “land of eternal investigations” of plunder and criminal cases of prominent political personages that are never brought to closure. These have contributed to our tarnished image in the global community . The quantity of Service is measured by the effectiveness of decisions made and efficiency of
actions taken in fulfilling the needs and interests of the constituents, with priority to those of the greater majority, again without neglecting those of the minorities. In a developing economy like ours, the most important yardstick of governing performance are economic in nature since the breadbasket is the topmost common daily concern of the vast majority of constituents. Ironically most of the commonly employed yardsticks of performance in the Philippine scene run along entertainment rather than economic factors . Many leaders have exploited the Filipinos’ propensity to festivities, entertainment, fun, personalities, even rumor and gossip, to deviate their attention from the more critical concerns of the economy that affects the breadbasket of the masses. While it is true that : “It is more fun in the Philippines”, the people must be expecting economic performance from the governors and leaders, simply because the rapidly increasing number of the poor who cannot have three square meals per day are not having fun on their hungry stomachs. A sub-core value of Service would be Accessibility . This is consistent with the basic principle of Service Marketing that advocates attention to customer needs, concerns and suggestions.The customer’s (constituent’s ) trust in the service provider’s ( governor’s) willingness to serve is easily earned and reinforced whenever the service provider’s highest ranking representatives give an ear to the customer’s concern, be it a complaint or a suggestion. The higher the rank of the listening officer, the higher the assurance of attention given to the concern of the customer. In the political jargon this is the meaning of the phrase: “madaling lapitan” or “sayong duolon”. This practice was the hallmark of the charisma of popular leaders like former President Ramon Magsaysay, Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, and the founders of the great religions. It is the simplest gesture that boosts the image of a person who is ready to be of service to others. In a similar fashion but on a slightly different angle, the governor has to make sure that the services of the institution that is represented are made accessible to all constituents through all its functional units, without prejudice to social or economic status. Thus
many business organizations have reinforced their customer relations program with the contracted services of call center organizations so as to encourage their customers to address their concerns and complain directly to them before they complain to anybody or everybody else. There is however a growing disgust over the impersonal way these concerns are addressed by call centers in a stonewalling fashion. The customer will always prefer the person to person audience with the person who is in the capacity to address the customer’s concern. In public service, the most reassuring presence is nothing less than that of the leader’s/governor’s personal audience. This task becomes more daunting as the breadth of governance widens. Nonetheless, the leader / governor has to find a way to assure all constituents that their concerns reach his/her attention. Failure to do so endangers the leader’s image before the constituents. Bad impressions spread faster than good ones. Transparency requires complete, truthful, honest and timely reporting, accounting and disclosure to all the constituents of the conduct and outcomes of governance . Corollary to this requirement is the governor’s observance of respect for the mandate and authority of the agencies and organizations that are mandated by law to check, audit and report to the constituents, the conduct and outcomes of governance, and the agencies authorized to enforce their verdict. Thus, we have the Sandiganbayan and the Ombudsman. Recently these mandated agencies have been doing a good job both at national and local levels, thanks to the model example and support of the incumbent national leader and the will of the people to support the movement towards adherence to good values in public governance. We are seeing encouraging developments along this direction even in our own province of Cebu. For a governor or leader to be able to adhere to these proposed core values in all their intentions, directions, priorities and conduct of governance, they need one encompassing and enabling quality which is INTEGRITY. Merriam – Webster defines integrity as the firm adherence to a code of moral or artistic core values. If
this enabling virtue is added to the first four, then the set of core values proposed for public governance would be as follows : Integrity to adhere to the core values of Legitimacy, Accountability, Service and Transparency or LAST. Any governor or leader who can adhere to these core values can be assured of a lasting place in the fond memory of their constituents. There are recent encouraging signs in our country. The writer is personally witnessing the willingness of an increasing number of professionals in the private sector and the academe , to share their skills and talents in making the system of local governance more responsive to the needs and expectations of the governed (reminds us of post EDSA-1 in Cebu, the CEBU Inc. movement ) . The improved rating of the Philippine economy by international economic rating organizations is an indication of the improving image and credibility of the system of governance in the country. The whole nation must rally behind the current national leadership in this quest . We must do our part in our own local setting. The next chapters of this analysis shall dwell on the possible strategies, avenues and participation by various sectors along this quest . The writer is a professor in the Graduate Schools of the University of San Carlos and Cebu Doctors’ University, with focus on organization development, business administration and management . He also works as Senior Vice President of an international school in Cebu and Consultant to the province of Cebu on legislative and development projects. He has a Master in Management degree from Asian Institute of Management and Doctor of Organization Development and Transformation (DODT) degree from Cebu Doctors’ University. He was a member of the founding committee that organized CEBU Inc. immediately after EDSA-1 to map out the strategies and programs to boost Cebu out of the economic quagmire that immediately followed EDSA-1. He was consultant to various local government units in programs for socio-economic development, the ethnic minorities, information and revenue generation systems . He has been a resident of Cebu since 1979.
25 cebu monthly SUGBO 25