I was wet behind the ears - virtually a fresh college graduate and a lawyer under construction - when I first got appointed by a Philippine President. I became a Director of the now-defunct Cordillera Executive Board and was the youngest then. I understood the Cordillera struggle for self-determination very well and probably used a better lens in deconstructing social issues than much older colleagues, thanks to my exposure to activism. However, I was inexperienced as a manager or administrator. I was, in two words, scared and insecure.
Thankfully, I had a father for an adviser. Do not push and throw your weight. Do not cover up your inexperience with arrogance. Do not engage in power trip. Do not mistreat the people under you. Use your power for the needy and weak. Give priority to those who traveled miles to see you. Aside from his reminders, Daddy pushed me to pursue a master's degree in public administration so I could fill the lacuna in my experience.
In UP, I had the best management professors. But my biggest mentor was Daddy. His long and diverse experience in public service and the wisdom he imbibed from growing up in an indigenous society where he observed collective decision-making on and management of community affairs became my Public Ad 101 lessons that I cannot forget. He imparted the same lessons to my siblings.
One time, I discussed Max Weber with Daddy. We talked about efficiency and effectiveness. What is the difference? I asked him.
My father, a baby boomer then in his 50s and member of the old school whose love affair with the Olivetti typewriter was characterized by eternal devotion and exclusivity, would always explain with illustrations.
"I draft a communication and give it to my secretary for typing. Inadvertently, there is a misspelled word. My secretary types the letter exactly as I drafted it. That is efficiency. "
How about effectiveness, Daddy?
"Effectiveness is when my secretary corrects my error."
I relate these because it seems even efficiency is a forgotten value among some civil servants in possession of managerial or supervisory powers. I heard complaints from various agencies. I have observed it myself. This contributes to bureaucratic malaise and the often-complained-about bureaucratic red tape. Some use the little power in their hands to promote self-interests and/or to inflate their relevance. They are threatened or intimidated by colleagues and subordinates who have initiatives or usher in new ideas or invoke old ideas that are not obsolete but remain practical. Some are simply incorrigible and lack imagination that they refuse to abandon old systems that are not working and have become obsolete. Others have no capacity to be shakers and movers even if their positions require them to be so. Imagine a manager saying, "We cannot do anything, " or "We have no control over those matters," when clearly he or she has. (This week alone, I heard this twice from two different agencies. One was the agency to whom I referred three people whose issues were brought to my attention by Samaria Santa Gall-Tang. They traveled from the province to seek the intervention of government on their plight only to be told nothing could be done. I am still incensed.)
In the process, these civil servants derail public service. They sabotage the quantity and quality of public service. So what? They will still receive their salaries. And they enjoy security of tenure. No one gets dismissed from the civil service for lack of imagination and creativity, or inability to be practical, or insecurity.
In their minds, they probably rationalize they are not stealing from the public coffers. But they are in a way. Incompetence in the form of a non-performing manager or civil servant who gets paid nonetheless is expensive. It is money lost. Every derailed public service is money lost. Lack of creativity and the feeling of lack of control or refusal to take control of matters within one's turf bear striking semblance to corruption in consequence.
I wish we all endeavor to optimize whatever little power we have to serve the people. If there are people we can command to accomplish things, let us use them. Only the insecure people in positions of power -great or small- are uncomfortable when surrounded by people who are highly accomplished, or driven, visionaries, or brilliant.
Having said that mouthful which is also a lecture to myself, I am glad I work under a leader who inspires his lieutenants to steer the move forward towards the vision, to deliver without being told, to take initiatives aligned with the vision, to self-actualize with no motivation higher than to serve the people. What a shame to respond to the expectations with inefficiency and ineffectiveness.
I am glad I am led by Department of Labor Secretary Silvestre "Bebot Bello.
