The Quest for Leadership to Forge a Vision for a New Nation

It is time to put to rest the illusion that political spin-doctors and demagogues have been dishing out for so long - about the need for a particular person as a capable replacement of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The problem is not just Gloria Macapagal Arroyo - for she is merely a puppet: a nominal figure used by the personalities around her, who are actually "running the show" from "back stage".

There is no single Filipino leader, even with the stature of the real heroes like Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Apolinario Mabini, Emilio Jacinto, Antonio Luna, Gregorio Del Pilar and all the others long dead, who can single-handedly bring up the Motherland from the pits,where we are now. What we need starting January 2008 is a series of teams of truly patriotic and capable Filipinos, who will serve at the sacrifice of their respective individual interests for only just 6 years, without any extension, to run the Executive Branch of the Philippine Government. That is the real issue.

It is time to acknowledge that the Presidential seat is just symbolic. No President can truly manage the Executive Branch without the assistance of those who are to be appointed as Cabinet Secretaries and all the other major functionaries. Thus, the task is to identify who among the non-politicians can be given the trust and confidence of the Filipino People to run each Department for the next 6 years, starting 2008.

No compromise with regard to the personalities who have been used and those who are being used by the immoral government of GloriaMacapagal Arroyo. We need a completely new team of Department Secretaries and major functionaries, whose common task is to pick up the pieces, clear the mess, and set up a new direction for our Motherland, that shall be relentlessly pursued by the next and subsequent teams that will be formed every 6 years.

The proposal to focus on "teams of truly patriotic and capable"Filipinos to run the Executive Branch of the Philippine Government is nothing other than the application of the principles and procedures for sourcing and selection of corporate officers done at the microlevel (business enterprise) to the macro level (National Government),with additional qualifications attuned to the requirements of publicgovernance. The basic premise of the proposal is that inspite of "vacancy" of the Presidential seat for any reason (disability,death, resignation, termination or retirement/end of tenure), the organization/country will continue operating in line with the vision and mission already laid down (e.g. Philippines 2050), steered by the selected members of the "Executive Team". What is "new" in applyingthe "Executive Team" concept to public governance is the basic implication that it will no longer be possible for one single individual, the "nominal Head" / President, to change the vision and mission of the organization, i.e., National Government. Any change in the vision and mission will have to be secured through a stringent "Strategic Review, Evaluation and Re-direction Program" - the mechanics are well-known by professional corporate executives and automatically applied at prescribed intervals, which can easily be linked with the 6-year tenure for the President of the Republic of the Philippines. We have enough professionals in the academe and practitioners in the private sector, who can be tapped to lay down the framework and the mechanics that will be adopted for the purpose.

To put the proposed "Executive Team" approach to an "acid test", we have to assume that there is an existing vision and mission for the Philippine Government, e.g., Philippines 2050. Rest assured that we will have to get back to this and forge one, for there is none! To counter-check my claim, all anyone of you has to do is to log into the Official Website of the Republic of the Philippines at http://www.gov.ph and what you will only find is the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP 2004- 2010) prepared by NEDA. Thus, it should be no wonder that the Philippines had always been in such a mess, since time immemorial for there is no vision and mission whose time-frame should at least be 20 times the tenure of the Presidency.

With this constraint, we just have to imagine that the Medium TermPhilippine Development Plan (MTPDP 2004 - 2010) is the current phase of the Long Term Philippine Development Plan (Philippines 2050). Now, how do we apply the proposed "Executive Team" approach for sourcing and selection of the candidates to be appointed as Department Secretaries and major functionaries in the NationalGovernment? Unfortunately, the practice of "appointment" is the second major organizational issue all along.

It is time to discard the practice of "appointment" and institutionalize an honest-to-goodness "Career Executive ServiceOfficers" (CESO) Program UP to the level of Department Secretaries and major functionaries. In short, the "nominal Head" / President will have to lose the power to "appoint". Corollary to this, Congress will have to lose its "Committee on PresidentialAppointments". For those who still think that radical changes can be achieved through "constitutional means", i.e., merely following the existing provisions of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, it is time to re-consider what you have been mouthing all along. The radical changes that have yet to be unfolded from the proposed "ExecutiveTeam" approach definitely require "clipping the wings" or "limiting the powers" of the President and the Legislative Branch!

As a transitory measure, therefore, an "Interim Batch" for the "Executive Team" will have to be formed, inevitably through extra-constitutional measure. The prescription is that within the next 6-year period, the full-blown "Career Executive Service Officers"(CESO) Program would have prepared the "First Batch" of CESOs for Department Secretaries and major functionaries of the National Government. I have to stop at this point, considering the pandemonium that this particular posting would have stirred up in the halls of Malacanang and Congress.

Until the next posting to continue the "acid test" for the proposed "Executive Team" approach ....

A Blessed and Peaceful Christmas for everyone.